“All the customs of the people differ from those of Paris....

“A little of Italian art enters into the ornaments of rooms and furniture, but anything like mechanical skill seems to be unheard of; and I dare say the pretty stamp used on the butter I have, which represents some antique picture, was cut by some northern hand.  I could make a better cart than those that I see on the streets, and I could almost make as good horses as those that draw them!...

“It is Holy Week.  I have spent seven hours at a time at St. Peter’s, in terrible crowds, for ten days, and now I go no more.  The ladies are seated, but as the ceremonies are in different parts of the immense building, they rush wildly from one to the other; with their black veils they look like furies let loose!  I stayed five hours to-day to see the Pope wash feet, which was very silly; for I saw mother wash them much more effectually twenty years ago!

“The crowd is better worth seeing than the ceremony, if one could only see it without being in it.  I shall not try to hear the ’Miserere’—­I have given up the study of music!  Since I failed to appreciate Mario, I sha’n’t try any more!

“I go to the Storys’ on Sunday evening to look at St. Peter’s lighting up.

“March 21.  I have been to vespers at St. Peter’s.  They begin an hour before sunset.  When my work is done for the day, I walk to St. Peter’s.  This is Sunday, and the floor was full of kneeling worshippers, but that makes no difference.  I walk about among them.

“I was there an hour to-day before I saw a person that I knew; then I met the Nicholses and went with them into a side chapel to hear vespers.  Then I saw next the Waterstons, then Miss Lander; but I was unusually short of friends, I generally meet so many more.

“There were kneeling women to-day with babies in their arms.  The babies of the lower classes have their legs so wrapped up that they cannot move them; they look like small pillows even when they are six months old.  I think it must dwarf them.  We Americans are a tall people.  I am a very tall woman here.  I think that P.’s height would cause a sensation in the streets.  My servant admires my height very much.

“March 22.  I called on Miss Bremer to-day, having heard that she desired to see me.  She is a ‘little woman in black,’ but not so plain; her face is a little red, but her complexion is fair and the expression very pleasing.  She chatted away a good deal; asked me about astronomy, and how I came to study it.  I told her that my father put me to it, and she said she was just writing a story on the affection of father and daughter.  She told me I had good eyes.  It is a long time now since any one has told me that!

“Miss Bremer and Mrs. W. met in my room and remained an hour.  Miss Bremer is quiet and unpretending.  Mrs. W. is flashy and brilliant, and, as I usually say when I don’t understand a person, a little insane; she had the floor all the time after she came in.  She gave a sketch of her life from her birth up, mentioning incidentally that she had been a belle, surrounded with beaux, the pride of her parents, with a reputation for intellect, etc.