"To-day is the 2d of January. On this day _three_ years ago The Corsair's publication is dated, I think, in my letter to Moore. On this day _two_ years I married, ('Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,'--I sha'n't forget the day in a hurry,) and it is odd enough that I this day received a letter from you announcing the publication of Childe Harold, &c. &c. on the day of the date of 'The Corsair;' and I also received one from my sister, written on the 10th of December, my daughter's birth-day (and relative chiefly to my daughter), and arriving on the day of the date of my marriage, this present 2d of January, the month of my birth,--and various other astrologous matters, which I have no time to enumerate. "By the way, you might as well write to Hentsch, my Geneva banker, and enquire whether the _two packets_ consigned to his care were or were not delivered to Mr. St. Aubyn, or if they are still in his keeping. One contains papers, letters, and all the original MS. of your third Canto, as first conceived; and the other, some bones from the field of Morat. Many thanks for your news, and the good spirits in which your letter is written. "Venice and I agree very well; but I do not know that I have any thing new to say, except of the last new opera, which I sent in my late letter. The Carnival is commencing, and there is a good deal of fun here and there--besides business; for all the world are making up their intrigues for the season, changing, or going on upon a renewed lease. I am very well off with Marianna, who is not at all a person to tire me; firstly, because I do not tire of a woman _personally_, but because they are generally bores in their disposition; and, secondly, because she is amiable, and has a tact which is not always the portion of the fair creation; and, thirdly, she is very pretty; and, fourthly--but there is no occasion for further specification. So far we have gone on very well; as to the future, I never anticipate--_carpe diem_--the past at least is one's own, which is one reason for making sure of the present. So much for my proper _liaison_.