so much to think of with
Georgina that I hope this won't occur to her. If it does, I shall be, as
Harold says, in a dreadful funk.

This is not such a nice place for a girl as for a young man, and the
Desmonds thought it _exceedingly odd_ that mamma should wish me to come
here. As Mrs. Desmond said, it is because she is so very unconventional.
But you know Paris is so very amusing, and if only Harold remains good-
natured about it, I shall be content to wait for the caravan (that's what
he calls mamma and the children). The person who keeps the
establishment, or whatever they call it, is rather odd, and _exceedingly
foreign_; but she is wonderfully civil, and is perpetually sending to my
door to see if I want anything. The servants are not at all like English
servants, and come bursting in, the footman (they have only one) and the
maids alike, at all sorts of hours, in the _most sudden way_. Then when
one rings, it is half an hour before they come. All this is very
uncomfortable, and I daresay it will be worse at Hyeres. There, however,
fortunately, we shall have our own people.

There are some very odd Americans here, who keep throwing Harold into
fits of laughter. One is a dreadful little man who is always sitting
over the fire, and talking about the colour of the sky. I don't believe
he ever saw the sky except through the window--pane. The other day he
took hold of my frock (that green one you thought so nice at Homburg) and
told me that it reminded him of the texture of the Devonshire turf. And
then he talked for half an hour about the Devonshire turf; which I
thought such a very extraordinary subject. Harold says he is mad. It is
very strange to be living in this way with people one doesn't know. I
mean that one doesn't know as one knows them in England.

The other Americans (beside the madman) are two girls, about my own age,
one of whom is rather nice. She has a mother; but the mother is always
sitting in her bedroom, which seems so very odd. I should like mamma to
ask them to Kingscote, but I am afraid mamma wouldn't like the mother,
who is rather vulgar. The other girl is rather vulgar too, and is
travelling about quite alone. I think she is a kind of schoolmistress;
but the other girl (I mean the nicer one, with the mother) tells me she
is more respectable than she seems. She has, however, the most
extraordinary opinions--wishes to do away with the aristocracy, thinks it
wrong that Arthur