On Saturday, 30th March, we had the baby christened; an immense party to dinner, Ld. and Ly. B., Ld. Duncannon, Ld. Ossory, G. Leveson, Sr. Gilbert and my mother, ye Duke of Bedford, Miss Vernon, and all those in the house. My mother, D. of B., and Lord Ossory stood for him. To comply with the Dss. of L.’s wish he was called Stephen, so we have now a Ste. Fox in the family. Marsh performed the ceremony; it was his first clerical function. He is to come up for Beau.’s marriage. Ly. Lucy is very clever, naturally very lively, but the loss of her brother has affected her spirits; she is enthusiastic, and her affection for him was worked up to a most romantic pitch. She was in his confidence, and knew how deeply he was involved in that fatal business in Ireland; any reference to the affair agitates her violently. At the time of O’Connor’s trial at Maidstone (a few months after Ld. E.’s death) she was at Goodwood; he being but too intimately connected with Ld. E., made her, of course, anxious about his fate: in short, she was ill. Ye Duke of Richmond[265] worked up his imagination, and fancied her grief arose from fear for O’Connor’s safety, she being in love with him. He went to her in the most affectionate manner, and proposed, if she would confide in him, to obtain O’Connor’s release, and assist their marriage. She assured him she only felt the regard due to him as a friend of her own and her brother’s. He is a strange, odd man. His conduct to Ly. E. Foster is very unaccountable. He is always talking and writing as if he intended to marry her, and yet the marriage is not more advanced than it was two years ago. She came here the other morning. As soon as ye Dss. of L. heard she was here, she immediately begged to see her in her room, a thing that very much flattered Ly. E., and added to her hopes. I have had very little time for reading: I have, however, contrived to read something, half Bernier’s _Travels into Hindostan_, and about as much of Pennant’s _Hindostan_, a part of a great work called _Outlines of the Globe_. [Sidenote: LORD HOBART]