to drink wine with
her. Lady G---- then came up, whom he did remember, and who was
"truly gracious;" and I left him consoled, and, I hope, having
forgotten his dreadful duchess again. All the world, as the saying
is, was at this ball, and it certainly was a very fine assembly. We
danced in a splendid room hung with tapestry--a magnificent
apartment, though it seemed to me incongruous for the purpose; dim
burning lights and flitting ghosts and gusts of wind and distant
footfalls and sepulchral voices being the proper _furniture_ of the
"tapestried chamber," and not wax candles, to the tune of sunlight
and bright eyes and dancing feet and rustling silks and gauzes and
laughing voices, and all the shine and shimmer and flaunting
flutter of a modern ball....

At half-past two, though the carriage had been ordered at two, my
father told me he would not "spoil sport," and so angelically
stayed till past four. He is the best of fathers, the most
affectionate of parents, the most benevolent of men! There is a
great difference between being chaperoned by one's father instead
of one's mother: the latter, poor dear! never flirts, gets very
sleepy and tired, and wants to go home before she comes; the former
flirts and talks with all the pretty, pleasant women he meets, and
does not care till what hour in the morning--a frame of mind
favorable to much dancing for the _youngers_. After all, I had to
come away in the middle of a delightful mazurka.

_Tuesday, June 7th._-- ... We had a very pleasant dinner at Mr.
Harness's. Moore was there, but Paganini was the chief subject
discussed, and we harped upon the one miraculous string he fiddles
on without pauses.... After dinner I read one of Miss Mitford's
hawthorny sketches out of "Our Village," which was lying on the
table; they always carry one into fresh air and green fields, for
which I am grateful to them.

_Wednesday, June 8th._--While I was writing to H---- my mother came
in and told me that Mrs. Siddons was dead. I was not surprised; she
has been ill, and gradually failing for so long.... I could not be
much grieved for myself, for of course I had had but little
intercourse with her, though she was always very kind to me when I
saw her.... She died at eight o'clock this morning--peaceably, and