habitable as if we had lived in them for weeks. How fortunate we are to
have found so charming an abode!

A chasm here occurs in my journal, occasioned by the arrival of some
dear relatives from England, with whom I was too much occupied to have
time to journalise. What changes five years effect in young people! The
dear girls I left children are now grown into women, but are as artless
and affectionate as in childhood. I could hardly believe my eyes when I
saw them, yet I soon traced the same dear countenances, and marvelled
that though changed from the round, dimpled ones of infancy, to the
more delicate oval of maidenly beauty, the expression of gaiety and
innocence of their faces is still the same.

A week has passed rapidly by, and now that they have returned to
England, their visit appears like a dream. I wish it had been longer,
for I have seen only enough of them to wish to see a great deal more.

The good Mrs. W. and her lively, clever, and her pretty daughter, Mrs.
R., dined with us yesterday. They are _en route_ for England, but give
many a sigh to dear Italy. It was pleasant to talk over the happy days
passed there, which we did with that tender regret with which the past
is always referred to by those who have sensibility, and they possess
no ordinary portion of this lovable quality. Les Dames Bellegarde also
dined with us, and they English friends took a mutual fancy to each
other. I like the Bellegardes exceedingly.

Our old friend, Lord Lilford, is at Paris, and is as amiable and
kind-hearted as ever. He dined with us yesterday, and we talked over
the pleasant days we spent at Florence. Well-educated, and addicted to
neither of the prevalent follies of the day, racing nor gaming, he only