But it is not alone the languages of the different countries that Mr.Cuthbert and M.Charles Laffitte have acquired, for both are well acquainted with the literature of each, which renders their society very agreeable.
Spent last evening in the Rue d'Anjou, where I met Lady Combermere, the Dowager Lady Hawarden, and Mrs.Masters.Lady Combermere is lively and agreeable, _un peu romanesque_, which gives great originality to her conversation, and sings Mrs.Arkwright's beautiful ballads with great feeling.
Mr.Charles Grant[4] dined here yesterday.

He is a very sensible man, possessing a vast fund of general information, with gentle and highly-polished manners.

What a charm there is in agreeable manners, and how soon one feels at ease with those who possess them! Spent, or mis-spent, a great portion of the day in visiting the curiosity shops on the _Quai Voltaire_, and came away from them with a lighter purse than I entered.

There is no resisting, at least I find it so, the exquisite _porcelaine de Sevres_, off which the dainty dames of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth feasted, or which held their _bouquets_, or _pot pourri_.

An _etui of_ gold set with oriental agates and brilliants, and a _flacon_ of rock crystal, both of which once appertained to Madame de Sevigne, vanquished my prudence.
Would that with the possession of these articles, often used by her, I could also inherit the matchless grace with which her pen could invest every subject it touched! But, alas! it is easier to acquire the beautiful _bijouterie_, rendered still more valuable by having belonged to celebrated people, than the talent that gained their celebrity; and so I must be content with inhaling _esprit de rose_ from the _flacon_ of Madame de Sevigne, without aspiring to any portion of the _esprit_ for which she was so distinguished.
I am now rich in the possession of objects once belonging to remarkable women, and I am not a little content with my acquisitions.