_restaurateur_ furnishes the repasts. The apartments command a
beautiful view, and the park of St.-Gratien offers a delightful
promenade to the visitors of Enghien.

Our route back to Paris was rendered very agreeable by the lively and
clever conversation of the Comtesse de Gand. I have rarely met with a
more amusing person.

With a most retentive memory, she possesses the tact that does not
always accompany this precious gift--that of only repeating what is
perfectly _à propos_ and interesting, with a fund of anecdotes that
might form an inexhaustible capital for a professional diner-out to set
up with; an ill-natured one never escapes her lips, and yet--hear it
all ye who believe, or act as if ye believe, that malice and wit are
inseparable allies!--it would be difficult to find a more entertaining
and lively companion.

Our old friend, Col. E. Lygon, came to see us to-day, and is as amiable
as ever. He is a specimen of a military man of which England may well
be proud.

The Ducs de Talleyrand and Dino, the Marquis de Mornay, the Marquis de
Dreux-Brezé, and Count Charles de Mornay, dined here yesterday. The
Marquis de Brezé is a clever man, and his conversation is highly
interesting. Well-informed and sensible, he has directed much of his
attention to politics without being, as is too often the case with
politicians, wholly engrossed by them. He appears to me to be a man
likely to distinguish himself in public life.

There could not be found two individuals more dissimilar, or more