a gondola in his usual brisk
condition.

It is extraordinary how few English we see. With the exception of a
gentlemanly young fellow (in a consumption I am afraid), married to the
tiniest little girl, in a brown straw hat, and travelling with his
sister and her sister, and a consumptive single lady, travelling with a
maid and a Scotch terrier christened Trotty Veck, we have scarcely seen
any, and have certainly spoken to none, since we left Switzerland. These
were aboard the _Valetta_, where the captain and I indulged in all
manner of insane suppositions concerning the straw hat--the "Little
Matron" we called her; by which name she soon became known all over the
ship. The day we entered Rome, and the moment we entered it, there was
the Little Matron, alone with antiquity--and Murray--on the wall. The
very first church I entered, there was the Little Matron. On the last
afternoon, when I went alone to St. Peter's, there was the Little Matron
and her party. The best of it is, that I was extremely intimate with
them, invited them to Tavistock House, when they come home in the
spring, and have not the faintest idea of their name.

There was no table d'hote at Rome, or at Florence, but there is one
here, and we dine at it to-day, so perhaps we may stumble upon
somebody. I have heard from Charley this morning, who appoints (wisely)
Paris as our place of meeting. I had a letter from Coote, at Florence,
informing me that his volume of "Household Songs" was ready, and
requesting permission to dedicate it to me. Which of course I gave.

I am beginning to think of the Birmingham readings. I suppose you won't
object to be taken to hear them? This is the last place at which we
shall make a stay of more than one day. We shall stay at Parma one, and
at Turin one, supposing De la Rue to have been successful in taking
places with the courier into France for the day on which we want them
(he was to write to bankers at Turin to do it), and then we shall come
hard and fast home. I feel almost there already, and shall be delighted
to close the pleasant trip, and get back to my own Piccola Camera--if,
being English, you understand what _that_ is. My best love and kisses to
Mamey, Katey, Sydney, Harry, and the noble Plorn. Last, not least, to
yourself, and many of them. I will not wait over to-morrow, tell Kate,
for her letter; but will write then, whether or no.

Ever, my dearest Georgy,