sion and an appearance of happiness in voice and
manner which made my flesh creep. Madame Loisillon was there, the wife
of the Permanent Secretary. She would be much better employed in looking
after her invalid than in boring society with the charms of their
delightful suite, the most comfortable in the Institute, 'with three
rooms more than it had in Villemain's time.' She must have told us this
ten times, in the pompous voice of an auctioneer, and in the hearing of
a friend living uncomfortably in rooms lately used for a _table d'hote!_

No fear of such bad taste in Madame Ancelin, a name often to be seen
in the Society papers. A good fat round lady, with regular features and
high complexion, piping out epigrams, which she picks up and carries
round: a friendly creature, it must be allowed. She too had sat up all
night reading me. I begin to think it is the regular phrase. She
begged me to come to her house whenever I liked. It is one of the three
recognised meeting-places of the Academie. Picheral would say that
Madame Ancelin, mad on the theatre, welcomes more especially the
'Players,' Madame Astier the 'Mouldies,' while the Duchess Padovani
monopolises the 'Dukes,' the aristocracy of the Institute. But really
these three haunts of fame and intrigue communicate one with another,
for on Wednesday in the Rue de Beaune I saw a whole procession of
deities of every description. There was Danjou the writer of
plays, Rousse, Boissier, Dumas, de Bretigny, Baron Huchenard of the
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and the Prince d'Athis of the Sciences
Morales et Politiques. There is a fourth circle in process of formation,
collected round Madame Eviza, a Jewess with full cheeks and long narrow
eyes, who flirts with the whole Institute and sports its colours; she
has green embroideries on the waistcoat of her spring costume, and
a little bonnet trimmed with wings _a la_ Mercury. She carries her
flirtations a little too far. I heard her say to Danjou, whom she was
asking to come and see her, 'The attractions of Madame Ancelin's house
are for the palate, those of mine for the heart.'

'I require both lodging and board,' was the cold reply of Danjou.
Danjou, I believe, covers the heart of a cynic under his hard
impenetrable mask and his black stiff thatch, like a shepherd of
Latium. Madame Eviza is a fine talker, and is mistress of considerable
information; I heard her quoting to the old Baron Huchenard whole
sentences from his 'C