her at dinner that at last my cousin declared that she did not consider
her pretty. Oh, you women! beauty is the only unpardonable offence in
your eyes. Mdlle. Casanova was Esther's friend, and yet she could not
bear to hear her praised.

On my seeing M. d'O---- again after dinner, he told me that if I cared to
take fifteen per cent. on my shares, he would take them from me and save
broker's expenses. I thought the offer a good one, and I accepted it,
taking a bill of exchange on Tourton & Baur. At the rate of exchange at
Hamburg I found I should have seventy-two thousand francs, although at
five per cent. I had only expected sixty-nine thousand. This transaction
won me high favour with Madame d'Urfe, who, perhaps, had not expected me
to be so honest.

In the evening I went with M. Pels to Zaandam, in a boat placed on a
sleigh and impelled by a sail. It was an extraordinary, but at the same
time an amusing and agreeable, mode of travelling. The wind was strong,
and we did fifteen miles an hour; we seemed to pass through the air as
swiftly as an arrow. A safer and more convenient method of travelling
cannot be imagined; it would be an ideal way of journeying round the
world if there were such a thing as a frozen sea all round. The wind,
however, must be behind, as one cannot sail on a side wind, there being
no rudder. I was pleased and astonished at the skill of our two sailors
in lowering sail exactly at the proper time; for the sleigh ran a good
way, from the impetus it had already received, and we stopped just at the
bank of the river, whereas if the sail had been lowered a moment later
the sleigh might have been broken to pieces. We had some excellent perch
for dinner, but the strength of the wind prevented us from walking about.
I went there again, but as Zaandam is well known as the haunt of the
millionaire merchants who retire and enjoy life there in their own way, I