In most companies pretty high play is the order of the day, and the ladies are the most eager players. The crowding to the 'écarté' table, which is almost out of fashion at Paris, is incessant; and the white arms of the English beauties appear to great advantage on the table-covers of black velvet embroidered with gold. But if their arms are dangerous, their hands are still more so, 'car les vieilles surtout trichent impitoyablement.' There are some old maids whom one meets in the first society who make a regular trade of play, so that they carry off fifty pounds at a stroke without changing a feature. They have small parties at their own houses, which are as 'like tripots' as possible. In no country can the admirer of 'le moyen age,' 'fair, fat and forty,' meet more women in high preservation than in England. Even still more mature years do not obliterate all pretensions. * * * * * I closed my day with reading and whist at the Club. My party was most curiously composed;--the Portuguese Ambassador, who is strikingly like Napoleon; a Neapolitan ex-minister, brought hither by the failure of the revolution; the Frenchman whom I described to you at Brighton; and my German insignificance, who however this time gained the victory; for I won eight rubbers and two 'Monkeys.' What is a 'Monkey?' you ask. Fashion has given strange names to the markers. One for twenty-five pounds is called a Poney; and one for fifty, a 'Monkey.' _April 3rd._ You are accustomed to follow me from the palace to the cottage, and from the decorated room to more beautiful nature. To-day I must introduce you to my dentist, the celebrated Mr. Cartwright. This gentleman is said to make ten thousand a year by his profession, and exercises it in the most 'grandiose' style. In the first place he goes to no one, excepting the King: every subject, male or female, must wait on him. But this is not all;--you must announce yourself a week or fortnight beforehand, and solicit an audience: you then receive a card containing the following answer:-- "Mr. Cartwright will have the pleasure of receiving N---- N---- on such a day and such an hour." You appear at the appointed time, and are ushered into an elegant room, where a piano-forte, prints, books and other helps to pass time are placed; a very necessary attention, as you often have to wait an hour or more. When I entered, I found the Duchess of Montrose and Lady Melville and her daughters, who were called away 'gradatim,' so that at length my turn came. When you have once reached this point, you find indeed infinite reason to be satisfied; for Mr. Cartwright is the most skilful and scientific man of his profession I ever met with,--perfectly devoid of all trace of 'charlatanerie,' which the difficulty of access might lead you to anticipate. He has also a settled price, and not an exorbitant one,--'mais c'est un Grand Seigneur dentiste.'