e had an odd pleasure in driving from one house to another, on
particular evenings, in order to produce as strong contrasts as my
limited visiting-list will procure. Having a fair opportunity a few
nights since, in consequence of two or three invitations coming in for
the evening on which several houses where I occasionally called were
opened, I determined to make a night of it, in order to note the effect.
As A---- did not know several of the people, I went alone, and you may
possibly be amused with an account of my adventures: they shall be told.

In the first place, I had to dress, in order to go to dinner at a house
that I had never entered, and with a family of which I had never seen a
soul. These are incidents which frequently come over a stranger, and at
first were not a little awkward; but use hardens us to much greater
misfortunes. At six, then, I stepped punctually into my _coupe_, and
gave Charles the necessary number and street. I ought to tell you that
the invitation had come a few days before, and in a fit of curiosity I
had accepted it, and sent a card, without having the least idea who my
host and hostess were, beyond their names. There was something _piquant_
in this ignorance, and I had almost made up my mind to go in the same
mysterious manner, leaving all to events, when happening, in an idle
moment, to ask a lady of my acquaintance, and for whom I have a great
respect, if she knew a Madame de ----, to my surprise, her answer was,
"Most certainly; she is my cousin, and you are to dine there to-morrow."
I said no more, though this satisfied me that my hosts were people of
some standing. While driving to their hotel, it struck me, under all the
circumstances, it might be well to know more of them, and I stopped at
the gate of a female friend, who knows everybody, and who, I was
certain, would receive me even at that unseasonable hour. I was
admitted, explained my errand, and inquired if she knew a M. de ----.
"Quelle question!" she exclaimed--"M. de ---- est Chancelier de France!"
Absurd and even awkward as it might have proved, but for this lucky
thought, I should have dined with the French Lord High Chancellor,
without having the smallest suspicion of who he was!

The hotel was a fine one, though the apartment was merely good, and the
reception, service, and general style of the house were so simple that
neither would have awakened the least suspicion of the importance of my
hosts. The party was smal