1815-1816] Sismondi and Italy 87 



Mrs Greathead gave a very pretty little ball last week 

 which was thought very agreeable by all the dames, but 

 for myself I thought it rather too long, as I generally do in 

 my quiescent state, if my non-dancing English men fail me, 

 which they did very much that night. Think of my luck 

 in the foot way. I resolved on learning to waltz, took my 

 first lesson on Xmas Eve, and that very day hurt the 

 side of my foot which has kept me here ever since; and I 

 have not been able to walk beyond church, and often with 

 difficulty there. So ends my prospect of becoming a 

 waltzer, and to tell you a secret I am afraid there is some 

 prospect of gout before me, but for the world I must not 

 whisper that ugly name or the dream of our tender years 

 would vanish. I wish you had seen the Countess Zoutoff's 

 tender manner when she found we were without parents. 

 Her passion for Jessie is nearly as strong as ever, but Jessie 

 began two weeks ago to find it a bore, and now heartily 

 wishes she would take herself off to Russia, and all inclina- 

 tion to be her companion is gone. . . . On Jessie's and 

 Fanny's return last night a little after 9 they found Sis- 

 mondi awaiting them with Madame Coutouly. Sismondi 

 urged us so strongly to give him an answer whether we 

 would go with him or not next month into Italy that we 

 engaged to make up our minds by the following Saturday. 

 The letters we received from England rather encouraged 

 our going, and one from Joe from Naples marked so 

 strongly the enormous advantage we should find in having 

 Sismondi our guide and protector from imposition in Italy, 

 added to which, Mrs Weld's seeing not the least impropriety 

 in our accepting his protection, as we were three, had 

 nearly decided us on going, but we thought first we might 

 as well ask Madame Constant's opinion, which I found 

 occasion to do at Mrs Greathead' s ball. Her opinion was 

 in favour of it, but at the same time asked my permission 

 to put it to her husband; 1 she did so, and two days after 



1 Henri Benjamin Constant (born of a French Huguenot family at 

 Lausanne in 1767 d. 1830) was a French author and politician of 

 some note. He had studied at Oxford in his youth. Like Mme de 

 Stael, he was banished from France for denouncing Napoleon's 



