thought of European manners and customs!  There was no dancing, which I suppose would have shocked their Eastern morals.  Lord Lyons asked me why I wasn’t in Berlin.  I said, “For the best of reasons, my husband preferred going without me—­but I hoped he would send for me perhaps at the end of the Congress.”  He told me Lady Salisbury was there with her husband.  He seemed rather sceptical as to the peaceful issue of the negotiations—­thought so many unforeseen questions would come up and complicate matters.

I went to a ball at the Hotel de Ville, also given for all the foreigners and French people connected with the exposition.  The getting there was very long and tiring.  The coupe-file did no good, as every one had one.  Comte de Pontecoulant went with me and he protested vigorously, but one of the head men of the police, whom he knew well, came up to the carriage to explain that nothing could be done.  There was a long line of diplomatic and official carriages, and we must take our chance with the rest.  Some of our cousins (Americans) never got there at all—­sat for hours in their carriage in the rue du Rivoli, moving an inch at a time.  Happily it was a lovely warm night; and as we got near we saw lots of people walking who had left their carriages some little distance off, hopelessly wedged in a crowd of vehicles—­the women in light dresses, with flowers and jewels in their hair.  The rooms looked very handsome when at last we did get in, particularly the staircase, with a Garde Municipal on every step, and banks of palms and flowers on the landing in the hall, wherever flowers could be put.  The Ville de Paris furnishes all the flowers and plants for the official receptions, and they always are very well arranged.  Some trophies of flags too of all nations made a great effect.  I didn’t see many people I knew—­it was impossible to get through the crowd, but some one got me a chair at the open window giving on the balcony, and I was quite happy sitting there looking at the people pass.  The whole world was represented, and it was interesting to see the different types—­Southerners, small, slight, dark, impatient, wriggling through the crowd—­the Anglo-Saxons, big, broad, calm, squaring their shoulders when there came a sudden rush, and waiting quite patiently a chance to get a little ahead.  Some of the women too pushed well—­evidently determined to see all they could.  I don’t think any royalties, even minor ones, were there.

W. wrote pretty regularly from Berlin, particularly the first days, before the real work of the Congress began.  He started rather sooner than he had at first intended, so as to have a little time to talk matters over with St. Vallier and make acquaintance with some of his colleagues.  St. Vallier, with all the staff of the embassy, met him at the station when he arrived in Berlin, also Holstein (our old friend who was at the German Embassy in Paris with Arnim) to compliment him from Prince Bismarck, and he had