efly
to my daughter), and arriving on the day of the date of my
marriage, this present 2d of January, the month of my birth,--and
various other astrologous matters, which I have no time to
enumerate.

"By the way, you might as well write to Hentsch, my Geneva banker,
and enquire whether the _two packets_ consigned to his care were or
were not delivered to Mr. St. Aubyn, or if they are still in his
keeping. One contains papers, letters, and all the original MS. of
your third Canto, as first conceived; and the other, some bones
from the field of Morat. Many thanks for your news, and the good
spirits in which your letter is written.

"Venice and I agree very well; but I do not know that I have any
thing new to say, except of the last new opera, which I sent in my
late letter. The Carnival is commencing, and there is a good deal
of fun here and there--besides business; for all the world are
making up their intrigues for the season, changing, or going on
upon a renewed lease. I am very well off with Marianna, who is not
at all a person to tire me; firstly, because I do not tire of a
woman _personally_, but because they are generally bores in their
disposition; and, secondly, because she is amiable, and has a tact
which is not always the portion of the fair creation; and, thirdly,
she is very pretty; and, fourthly--but there is no occasion for
further specification. So far we have gone on very well; as to the
future, I never anticipate--_carpe diem_--the past at least is
one's own, which is one reason for making sure of the present. So
much for my proper _liaison_.

"The general state of morals here is much the same as in the Doges'
time; a woman is virtuous (according to the code) who limits
herself to her husband and one lover; those who have two, three, or
more, are a little _wild_; but it is only those who are
indiscriminately diffuse, and form a low connection, such as the
Princess of Wales with her courier, (who, by the way, is made a
knight of Malta,) who are considered as overstepping the modesty of
marriage. In Venice, the nobility have a trick of marrying with
dancers and singers; and, truth to say, the women of their own
order are by no means handsome; but the general race, the women of
the second and other orders, the wives of th