I dine at home only when we have friends, so-called, with us, and spend
the afternoon there only on my day, for I have a day now--Wednesday--for
receiving. I have entered the lists with Mmes. d'Espard and de
Maufrigneuse, and with the old Duchesse de Lenoncourt, and my house has
the reputation of being a very lively one. I allowed myself to become
the fashion, because I saw how much pleasure my success gave Felipe. My
mornings are his; from four in the afternoon till two in the morning I
belong to Paris. Macumer makes an admirable host, witty and dignified,
perfect in courtesy, and with an air of real distinction. No woman could
help loving such a husband even if she had chosen him without consulting
her heart.

My father and mother have left for Madrid. Louis XVIII. being out of the
way, the Duchess had no difficulty in obtaining from our good-natured
Charles X. the appointment of her fascinating poet; so he is carried off
in the capacity of attache.

My brother, the Duc de Rhetore, deigns to recognize me as a person of
mark. As for my younger brother, The Comte de Chaulieu, this buckram
warrior owes me everlasting gratitude. Before my father left, he spent
my fortune in acquiring for the Count an estate of forty thousand francs
a year, entailed on the title, and his marriage with Mlle. de Mortsauf,
an heiress from Touraine, is definitely arranged. The King, in order to
preserve the name and titles of the de Lenoncourt and de Givry families
from extinction, is to confer these, together with the armorial
bearings, by patent on my brother. Certainly it would never have done
to allow these two fine names and their splendid motto, _Faciem semper
monstramus_, to perish. Mlle. de Mortsauf, who is granddaughter and
sole heiress of the Duc de Lenoncourt-Givry, will, it is said, inherit
altogether more than one hundred thousand livres a year. The only
stipulation my father has made is that the de Chaulieu arms should
appear in the centre of the de Lenoncourt escutcheon. Thus my brother
will be Duc de Lenoncourt. The young de Mortsauf, to whom everything
would otherwise go, is in the last stage of consumption; his death is
looked for every day. The marriage will take place next winter when
the family are out of mourning. I am told that I shall have a charming
sister-in-law in Mlle. de Mortsauf.

So you see that my father's reasoning is justified. The outcome of
it all has won me many compliments, and my marriage is explained