Lady Blessington seems to have been the only woman holding his own rank and station with whom Byron was ever at his ease, and with whom, therefore, he was himself. With all others he seemed to feel a constraint which irritated and vexed him into the assumption of vices which did not belong to him. P. G. PATMORE: ‘My Friends and Acquaintance.’ * * * * * [Sidenote: A Byronic jeu d’esprit.] His lordship suffered Lady Blessington to lecture him in prose, and, what was worse, in verse. He endeavored to persuade Lord Blessington to prolong his stay in Genoa, and to take a residence adjoining his own named “_Il Paradiso_.” And on a rumor of his intention to take the place for himself, and some good-natured friend observing, “_Il diavolo è ancora entrato in Paradiso_,” his lordship wrote the following lines: “Beneath Blessington’s eyes The reclaimed Paradise Should be free as the former from evil; But if the new Eve For an apple should grieve, What mortal would not play the devil?” R. R. MADDEN: ‘Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington.’ * * * * * [Sidenote: Lady Blessington’s apartments in Paris.] “The whole fitting up,” says Lady Blessington, “is in exquisite taste; and, as usual, when my most gallant of all gallant husbands that it ever fell to the happy lot of woman to possess interferes, no expense has been spared. The bed, which is silvered instead of gilt, rests on the backs of two large silver swans, so exquisitely sculptured that every feather is in _alto-relievo_, and looks as fleecy as those of the living birds. The recess in which it is placed is lined with white fluted silk, bordered with blue embossed lace; and from the columns that support the frieze of the recess, pale blue silk curtains, lined with white, are hung, which, when drawn, conceal the recess altogether.... A silver sofa has been made, to fit the side of the room opposite the fire-place, near to which stands a most inviting _bergere_. An _escritoire_ occupies one panel, a book-stand the other, and a rich coffer for jewels forms a pendant to a similar one for lace or India shawls. A carpet of uncut pile, of a pale blue, a silver lamp and a Psyche glass, the ornaments silvered to correspond with the decorations of the chamber, complete the furniture. The hangings in the dressing-room are of blue silk, covered with lace, and trimmed with rich frills of the same material, as are also the dressing-stands and _chaire longue_, and the carpet and lamp are similar to those of the bedroom. A toilet-table stands before the window, and small _jardinieres_ are placed in front of each panel of looking-glass, but so low as not to impede a full view of the person dressing in this beautiful little sanctuary. The _salle de bain_ is draped with white muslin, trimmed with lace; and the sofa and the _bergere_ are covered with the same.