I thought of San Paolo Fuori le Muri and the celebrations in the great Basilica, and the Roman world on its way out of the Porta San Paolo past the pyramid of Caius Cestus and the grave of Keats. _June 30th._ Your earthquake letter received. Remember, the Paris _Herald_ has to live. We see a good deal of the ambassador, and also of Dearing, clever and courageous. When the ambassador will leave I don't know; but we do know the greatest benefit a chief can confer on his first secretary. Dearing is trying his hand at translating Mallarmé, and last night we were turning the "_Frisson d'hiver_" round about, but we didn't do to it what he did to "The Raven." It begins: "_Cette pendule de Saxe qui retarde et sonne treize heures parmi ses fleurs et ses dieux, à qui a-t-elle été?_" We dine at the Austrian chargé's to-morrow. Everything always very _soigné_. He has an Austrian cook, I believe, and a pleasant mania for cleanliness. He will soon be leaving, as Baron Riedl from Rio Janeiro, his cousin, is appointed minister here. You remember him and his American wife from Rome. I am sending a huge bundle of zarapes, dull blue and white, sewed up in canvas--so nice for the garden, and for Elliott on his terrace. VI Speculations as to the wealth of "the Greatest Mexican"--Fourth of July--Madero as evangelist--The German minister's first official dinner with the Maderos as the _clou_. _July 1st._ There are great speculations as to Diaz's wealth, and millions are put to his account with a light hand.[5] Some say he has twenty millions in Spain, in Paris, in Wall Street. I am sure I hope he _has_ feathered his nest--both he and Limantour. As I remarked before, the Romans that made the roads probably did, but they made the roads. There is a not-negligible quantity in Mexico, in abeyance for the moment, which is very suspicious and uncertain, not of the honesty of Madero (all parties allow that), but of his ability to handle the situation, which demands civic talents of a high order. President de la Barra has a pension plan which will doubtless give him much trouble, as it will have to include all of Mexico, or those left out will know why. As was observed by some one the other day, the more the Mexicans try to change Mexico the more it remains the same thing. Practically new electoral methods are to be tried out, and how Madero, unless he has a secret _flair_ for civic matters, is to solve them is what we are all waiting to see. The people's ears are full of promises. The government would promise the snow of Popo--anything; but there is a ditty being sung about town now that gives one food for thought: