SOCIETY AT ST. LUIZ. 



287 



apartment a chest of drawers and several chairs. 

 The mistress of the house, an elderly lady, was 

 seated in a hammock, and a female visitor in an- 

 other, but her two daughters and some male rela- 

 tions sat upon chairs. The company, which consist- 

 ed of two or three men besides ourselves, formed a 

 semicircle towards the hammocks. There was 

 much ceremony, and the conversation was carried 

 on chiefly by the men, and anoccasional remark was 

 made by one or other of the old ladies. An answer 

 was given by the daughters to a question asked, 

 but no more, and some of the subjects touched 

 upon would not have been tolerated in mixed 

 society in England. A part of the formality 

 might perhaps have worn off on further acquain- 

 tance. The education however of women is not 

 attended to, which of necessity curtails the pos- 

 sibility of their entering into conversation upon 

 many subjects, even if so to do was accounted 

 proper. Still the ladies of St. Luiz cannot be 

 said to be generally thus reserved, for gaming 

 among both sexes is much practised, and is car- 

 ried to great excess. A young lady in one in- 

 stance, when going out with her mother to some 

 evening company, passed through the apartment 

 in which her father was at play with several of 

 his acquaintance. He spoke to his daughter, 

 asking her to take a card, which she did. She 

 went on playing until she had lost three hundred 

 mil rets, about 80/., and then said she had no 

 more money. A fresh supply was afforded to 



