handsome person, yet Thekla must always stand first in the opinion of such a court-loving people as the Russians are generally.

It soon became Thekla's business, according to Russian etiquette, to ask the Emperor's permission to have a reception in her own palace. She was to receive the whole court; and thenceforward take her place as one of the Imperial family. This was an awful undertaking; but it familiarized her with the ranks, titles, and uncouth names among which she was henceforth to live. Her German notions were sadly perplexed when she found that title in Russia gave no claim to rank, and that every official-and they comprehend nearly all the society-takes rank solely according to his office. She had not been accustomed to see Princes, and Counts, and others of noble names, placed below even the clerks in office. Then these clerks and all civilians held their rank after the military scale, as colonels, captains, &c., though they were never expected to see a gun fired. Everything seemed

to her artificial, and their education was entirely foreign, and had no stamp of nationality.

The summer passed away; and the chilly autumn, the prelude to an icy winter, was slowly approaching

Society had gathered round the little court; and as Prince Peter was fond of drawing agreeable foreigners about him, their salons were the focus of intelligence, especially from Germany. This circumstance had great charm for Thekla, whose heart yearned towards her fatherland, and as letters came neither quickly or safely in those days, all travellers, especially those from Xwere most welcome.

Melusina seemed to prefer French society, and as the number of emigrés was then daily increasing, and the policy of the Russian court tended to encourage them, her taste for their politics as well as for their conversation was amply gratified. Still, from all I heard, she kept a jealous eye on Conrad.

Of him I received but scanty accounts.

Thekla never mentioned him in her letters. Miss Temple but seldom. I was uneasy; but dared not let my uneasiness appear. Conrad himself wrote rarely, briefly; and what was unlike him, common-place letters, yet kind and affectionate towards me.

It seemed as if that fatal night had opened a gulf between my child and myself, over which no real confidence could subsist or preserve its footing; intuitively, and as if by common consent, no further allusion passed betwixt us on that unhappy subject. Our immediate separation after its occurrence might, I felt, be the principal, if not the only cause, of this reserve. However that might be, I had not myself the courage at first to touch upon it in my letters; and afterwards I brought myself to believe all advice or warning on so delicate a topic would have been unwise and superfluous on my part. Apparently he thought with me on this head; for never by word nor inference did his letters, in the slightest particular, dwell on the subject of

his royal mistress, or his former attachment to her. It seemed to me as if he took refuge in his duty from all reminiscences of the past; and it was not for me to disturb the tranquillity he had finally attained, by allusions to what must be a painful and hopeless remembrance of a momentary aberration of spirit and dereliction from duty-long, I trusted, heartily repented of -and wholly subdued.

The total change of life and occupation which Thekla experienced was well described by her in one of her letters to me.

"At X-, where I had not half the pompous luxury that surrounds me here, I had far more liberty of action. I was the first, in a small circle it is true, but still I was the centre of it; here I am a greater lady, but a less personage. I find, too, that whatever deference is shown to me by the Imperial family, by the ministers and great people, even though they are complimenters, flatterers, and courtiers to an extreme of servility I have never before wit

nessed, yet no attention is paid to any wish I express, or to any request I make (and they have been of the most trifling description), unless it be previously laid before the Emperor, and receive his sanction. And the persons of the court I suspect have not served me very faithfully, even in these small matters. My husband advises me to abstain from asking anything advice which I shall in future scrupulously adhere to. As to politics, I was once only tempted to make some inquiries about persons and things you have mentioned to me relating to Poland, but I was met with such a decided tone of disapproval that I fear that topic must be abandoned."

“One of the things which astonished me most," wrote Thekla, after being some time at Petersburg, "was the great freedom and openness with which the Russians, even those high in the confidence of Government, spoke before me of political subjects—those, at least, that did not affect their own country. Some might