If I improve myself in nothing else here, I shall in politics and cabriolet-driving; the latter one learns to perfection. You wind along at full speed, among carts and carriages, where you would have thought you must have stopped for minutes. A residence in such a metropolis of the world certainly tends to correct all one's small views of things: one regards them in a broader manner, and more 'en bloc.' _May 10th._ The eternal uniformity of the season goes on for ever. A soirée at Lady Cowper's, one of the gentlest of Lady-patronesses; another at Lady Jersey's, one of the handsomest and most distinguished women in England,--both preceded by an Indian mélodrame,--filled my evening very agreeably. The scene of the mélodrame lay in an island whose inhabitants were endowed with the delightful gift of flying. The prettiest girls came floating in in masses, like flights of cranes, and when very pressingly courted just let their wings sink; but if you were emboldened by this,--a nod--and the graceful, many-coloured folds expanded, and away they went; nor could one so much as see the slender cords by which they were drawn up. At a dinner and soirée at Prince Polignac's there were several interesting persons; among them the Governor of Odessa, one of the most agreeable Russians I have seen, and Sir Thomas Lawrence, the celebrated painter. I was told that he regularly loses at billiards (of which he makes the great mistake of fancying himself a master) the enormous sums he gains by his art. He is a man of interesting appearance, with something 'du moyen age' in his features, strongly reminding one of the pictures of the Venetian school. Still more was I attracted by the Portuguese eyes of the Marchioness ----: Portuguese and Spanish eyes eclipse all others. Prince Polignac's niece told me that her uncle's hair, which is perfectly white, while the rest of his appearance is youthful and agreeable, had turned gray at the age of five-and-twenty, in the course of a few weeks, from the anxiety and horror of a revolutionary dungeon.[56] He may well find the present contrast agreeable; but, alas! the Restoration cannot restore the colour of his hair. I was interested by this circumstance; for you know, my good Julia, mine has also patriotically begun to assume our national colours, white and black. A curious foreigner who wishes to see all the gradations of social life, can hardly hold out a London season. More than forty invitations are now lying on my table,--five or six for each day. All these fête-givers must be called upon in a morning; and, to be courteous, one must go in person. 'C'est la mer à boire;' and yet on my way to parties I continually pass ten or a dozen houses which I don't know, where the same mass of carriages is standing before the door.