Richard went off early this morning with Sermet and Moulin of the French Embassy to see the Falls of Smatra, which are said to be very fine. We pick him up at Helsingfors. I walked about a little with Adelaide--I never see anything the least like a femme du monde in the streets. I suppose the "societe" are away for the summer, and the streets look rather as September streets do in Paris. W. and I dined at the Thorntons'--handsome and pleasant. Jaures was there, not his wife, she has already started for Paris, and the Ternaux Compans, a nice young menage (just married) attached to the Embassy. She was very well dressed, in white. There was also the Danish Minister (I forget his name). He is a friend of the Empress and tres bien vu a la cour. After dinner someone played on the piano, and he and Mary Thornton danced a little, showing us some of the figures of the mazurka. Lady Thornton says, like everyone else, that the society of Petersburg is very ferme. They know everybody, but I fancy very few of the diplomatists make real friends with anyone. I was rather surprised, as the Russians one meets abroad are generally very easy and sociable. She also finds the climate very trying. She showed me all the rooms, which are charming. In all the bedrooms very thick curtains, as the light is most trying, and of course people who live there must have regular hours for sleep--for us birds of passage it is of no consequence, and going to bed seems the last thing one would think of doing in Petersburg. We came home about 11, and now W. is busy over his Paris letters, also putting his notes in order, as he has finished with the medals. He has had three or four days of real hard work, but says it rested him after all the Court festivities. Jeudi, 21 Juin. We have been shopping all the morning,--W. and I and M. Lomatch (I have found his name). We bought, among other things, a sled for Francis--I haven't seen one since I left America--and a good deal of Russian lace, which they say is very solid, and embroidery. We came back to a late breakfast, and I am writing now at the last moment while they are carrying down the trunks. We are going at 4 to the steamer to leave our boxes and Adelaide, and install ourselves, and then go for tea to Coutouly, who has an apartment on the Quai, just opposite the wharf where the steamer starts from. I am quite sorry to go. We are very comfortable here, and the streets are so amusing. I should like once to hear a little laughing and singing, as the various groups of work-people, soldiers, and peasants pass--but they are a curiously sad, subdued race. Friday, June 22d. "En mer."