felt as if I should die. Not
until half-past seven were we informed that the meal was ready; but
our poor stomachs had gone through too much agony; we were unable to
eat anything at all. I then found out that the Countess D---- dined at
the hour usual in London. The Countess ought to have notified me, but
perhaps she imagined that the whole universe was aware of her dinner
hour.

As a rule, nothing was more distasteful to me than to dine in town,
but I was sometimes obliged to do it, especially in Russia, where one
runs a risk of mortally offending people if one declines their
invitations too often. I disliked the dinners the more as there were
such a number of them. They were highly luxurious; most of the
nobility had very good French cooks, and the fare was incomparable. A
quarter of an hour before the guests sat down at table a servant would
pass round a tray with all sorts of cordials and small slices of
buttered bread. No cordials were taken after dinner, but always
superior Malaga wine.

It is the custom in Russia for the great ladies, even at their own
houses, to go into table before the guests, so that the Princess
Dolgoruki and others would take me by the arm, in order that I might
go in at the same time as they, for it would be impossible to exceed
the Russian ladies in the urbanities of good society. I will even go
so far as to say that they are without the haughtiness chargeable to
some of our French ladies.

At St. Petersburg the rigour of the climate would be unnoticed by any
one who remains indoors, to such a degree have the Russians perfected
the means of keeping their houses warm. From the very porter's door
all is heated by such excellent stoves that the fires maintained in
the chimney places are purely ornamental. The stairways and corridors
are of the same temperature as the rooms, whose communicating doors
are left open without any inconvenience resulting. When the Emperor
Paul, then Grand Duke only, came to France for the first time, he said
to the Parisians: "In St. Petersburg you see the cold, but here you
feel it." And when, after spending seven and a half years in Russia, I
went back to Paris, where the Princess Dolgoruki was also staying, I
remember that on a certain day, on which I had gone to see her, we
were both so cold in front of her fireplace that we said, "We must go
to spend the winter in Russia to get warm."

[Illustration: ISABEL CZARTORYSKA

A Polish Noblewoman.]

For goin