This Was All Arranged To Music And Each Made Little
Speeches, Introducing Themselves.
The OLD YEAR, after introducing
his successors, and after much pathos, is "going, going--gone," and
falls covered with his drapery, upon removing which, instead of the
lifeless body of the OLD YEAR, is discovered a sweet little flower-
crowned girl of five or six, as the NEW YEAR.
It was charming, and
I was so pleased that, instead of taking Louisa away at nine o'clock
as I intended, I left her to see "Sir Roger de Coverly," in the
dress of his time.
Last night at Mr. Putnam's, I met William and Mary Howitt, and some
of the lesser lights. I have put down my pen to answer a note, just
brought in, to dine next Thursday with the Dowager Countess of
Charleville, where we were last week, in the evening. She is
eighty-four (tell this to Grandmamma) and likes still to surround
herself with BEAUX and BELLES ESPRITS, and as her son and daughter
reside with her, this is still easy . . . The old lady talks French
as fast as possible, and troubles me somewhat by talking it to me,
forgetting that a foreign minister's wife can talk English . . .
Your father likes to be here. He has copying going on in the State
Paper Office and British Museum, and his heart is full of
manuscripts. It is the first thought, I believe, whoever he sees,
what papers are in their family. He makes great interest with even
the ladies sometimes for this purpose.
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