s he met there;
from an English lady[112] married to a Swiss, Mr. and Mrs. Cerjat,
clever and agreeable both, far beyond the common; from her sister wedded
to an Englishman, Mr. and Mrs. Goff; and from Mr. and Mrs. Watson of
Rockingham-castle in Northamptonshire, who had taken the Elysee on
Dickens giving it up, and with whom, as with Mr. Haldimand, his
relations continued to be very intimate long after he left Lausanne. In
his drive to Mr. Cerjat's dinner a whimsical difficulty presented
itself. He had set up, for use of his wife and children, an odd little
one-horse-carriage; made to hold three persons sideways, so that they
should avoid the wind always blowing up or down the valley; and he found
it attended with one of the drollest consequences conceivable. "It can't
be easily turned; and as you face to the side, all sorts of evolutions
are necessary to bring you 'broad-side to' before the door of the house
where you are going. The country houses here are very like those upon
the Thames between Richmond and Kingston (this, particularly), with
grounds all round. At Mr. Cerjat's we were obliged to be carried, like
the child's riddle, round the house and round the house, without
touching the house; and we were presented in the most alarming manner,
three of a row, first to all the people in the kitchen, then to the
governess who was dressing in her bedroom, then to the drawing-room
where the company were waiting for us, then to the dining-room where
they were spreading the table, and finally to the hall where we were got
out--scraping the windows of each apartment as we glared slowly into
it."

A dinner party of his own followed of course; and a sad occurrence, of
which he and his guests were unconscious, signalised the evening (15th
of July). "While we were sitting at dinner, one of the prettiest girls
in Lausanne was drowned in the lake--in the most peaceful water,
reflecting the steep mountains, and crimson with the setting sun. She
was bathing in one of the nooks set apart for women, and seems somehow
to have entangled her feet in the skirts of her dress. She was an
accomplished swimmer, as many of the girls are here, and drifted,
suddenly, out of only five feet water. Three or four friends who were
with her, _ran away_, screaming. Our children's governess was on the
lake in a boat with M. Verdeil (my prison-doctor) and his family. They
ran inshore immediately; the body was quickly got out; and M. Verdeil,
with thr