is head.--The design of the Count's visit is a ball;--more
pleasure--I shall be surfeited."

The "phlegm of the country" surprised Lady Mary, who declared that it
was not from Austria that one could write with vivacity--and by her
letters at once disproved her statement. According to her, amours and
quarrels were carried on calmly and almost good-temperedly. Strong
feelings only came into play when points of ceremony were concerned. A
man not only scorned to marry a woman of family less illustrious than
his own, but even to make love to her--"the pedigree is much more
considered by them than either the complexion or features of their
mistresses. Happy are the shes that can number among their ancestors
Counts of the Empire; they have neither occasion for beauty, money, or
good conduct to get them husbands." How far this passion for rank and
precedence went is indicated by an amusing incident related by Lady
Mary.

"'Tis not long since two coaches, meeting in a narrow street at night,
the ladies in them not being able to adjust the ceremonial of which
should go back, sat there with equal gallantry till two in the morning,
and were both so fully determined to die upon the spot, rather than
yield in a point of that importance, that the street would never have
been cleared till their deaths, if the emperor had not sent his guards
to part them; and even then they refused to stir, till the expedient was
found out of taking them both out in chairs exactly at the same moment;
after which it was with some difficulty the _pas_ was decided between
the two coachmen, no less tenacious of their rank than the ladies."

Lady Mary herself was, of course, unaffected, because, as the wife of an
ambassador, she, by their own customs, had the _pas_ before all other
ladies--to the great envy of the town.

Lady Mary, who had had enough of solitude during her long residence in
Yorkshire, now in Vienna was determined to enjoy herself and flung
herself into all the social gaieties. She went everywhere and met
everyone. She dined at the villa of Count Schoenbrunn, the
Vice-Chancellor; she attended all the assemblies of Madame Rabutin and
the other leaders of society, and all the "gala days"; she danced; she
went to the theatre, and, then, as a contrast, to a nunnery, which left
her unhappy, as, indeed, she put on record:

"I was surprised to find here the only beautiful young woman I have
seen at Vienna, and not only beautiful, but gent