the happiness of the last month there.

There is nothing to say of the country, for it is the same as on
all the other sides of Berlin; the soil more horrid than anything I
ever saw, and of course all as flat as water, but just now and then
some rather nice villages.... After about two hours there we came
on, first through nice, small Scotch fir woods, then quite ugly
again till near here, when we got into really pretty banks of oak,
beech, and fir, down a real steep road and along a nice narrow lane
till we got here, where they were all standing on the steps of our
mansion ready to receive us. Mama was carried to the drawing-room
... before the house is a wee sort of border all full of weeds, but
nothing like a garden or place belonging to the house, but there
seem very few people; then there is a terrace, which is very nice
though it is public. Mama is not the least tired and quite pleased
with it all. It is very, very nice to be here, able to go out
without our things and expecting no company, and what at first one
feels more nice than everything, not having any carriages or noises
out of doors; for eight months and a half we have never been
without that horrid, constant rumbling in the streets. It is
_very_ odd to feel ourselves here; unlike any place I ever
lived in. The bath house is close by, but that is the only house
near us.

[9] German friends at Berlin.

There they lived all the summer the life that they liked best. They lost
themselves in the forest, they read aloud, and they enjoyed the rustic
theatre. The autumn brought visits to Teplitz and Dresden.

They were back in Berlin for the winter and early spring, when she began to
take more part in society.

April 1, 1834, BERLIN

Stupid dinner of old gentlemen. Mary still being rather silly[10] did
not dine at table.... It was very awful to be alone, but at dinner
I was happy enough as Loeven sat on one side of me. Humboldt was on
the other. Afterwards came Fitz for a moment and Deken and
Bismarck.

April 5, 1834, BERLIN

I sat the second quadrille by my stupidity in refusing Bismarck.

[10] Scotch for unwell.

Early in May came "the hateful morning of good-byes" to friends in Berlin,
and at Marienbad. Lord Minto heard the news that Lord Grey had resigned
owing to Lord Althorp's refusal to agree to the Irish Coercion Bill. Lor