24 



you tell me not one word of your marriage ? " This 

 but has been to me as an accusation to the most con- 

 science-wounded criminal. I shall all my life regret 

 that you learnt this event from any other than my- 

 self; yet I might have assured you that the person 

 was no enemy to Flora. I was so dissatisfied with 

 my position, in a house with two good old aunts (for 

 one died since my return here), who have no other 

 ideas than those of that herd of silly beings called 

 gens du monde> eternal players of quadrille, in a place 

 where I find no reasonable creature to converse 

 with, that I yielded to the idea of uniting myself 

 to a young lady whose conversation I had always 

 found more agreeable than any other here, and 

 whose way of thinking agrees so well with mine. 

 She is a year older than myself; only daughter of 

 one of the best families in this country. Her name 

 was De Cottens. Her eldest brother, who is about 

 twenty-three, and not of age here till twenty-five, is 

 C. Lieut, in the Swiss Guards at the Hague : — the 

 other, Ensign and Aide Major in a Swiss regiment 

 in the King of Sardinia's service. But as the world 

 goes, I would rather have a wife of her disposition 

 and way of thinking, with little fortune, than a 

 worldly-minded girl with a great one. My wife is so 

 much attached to you from my speaking of you to 

 her as my best friend, and the person of all others I 

 most esteem and love, that she insists on learning to 



dry plants to send to you, and often says, 



" Presses le devenir ; faiteslui mes complimens en Vas- 

 surant que nous ferons tout ce qui est possible pour 

 rendre ce s&jour agreable ; nous en aurons si grand 



