The first is as _spirituel_ and clever as formerly, and the second is as frank, high-spirited, and well-bred--the very _beau ideal_ of a son of the sea, possessing all the attributes of that generous race, joined to all those said to be peculiar to the high-born and well-educated.
I like the conversation of such men--men who, nursed in the lap of luxury, are sent from the noble dwellings of their sires to be "cabined, cribbed, confined," in (to my thinking) the most unbearable of all prisons--a ship; pass months and years exposed to hardships, privations, and dangers, from the endurance of which even the poor and lowly born often shrink, and bring back to society the high breeding and urbanity not to be surpassed in those whose lots have been exempt from such trials; and, what is still more precious, the experience and reflection acquired in their perilous profession, and in the many hours of solitude and anxiety that appertain to it.
Sat a considerable time with the Duchesse de Guiche today.

How amiable and kind-hearted she is, and how unspoilt by all the brilliancy of her position! While I was there the mother and son of a young page, for whom the Duc and Duchesse have obtained that office at court, came to thank her.

The boy is a very fine youth, and the mother and sister seem to dote on him.

They reminded me of the mother and sister that a sentimental writer would have created for the occasion, being exceedingly interesting in their appearance and manner.

The boy was evidently as fond and proud of them as they were of him, and the group formed a charming picture.
The warmth and gentleness of the manners of the Duchesse de G----, and the remarkable beauty of her face and figure, never appeared more captivating in my eyes than when I beheld her to-day, evincing such good nature to the youthful page and his mother and sister; and I saw by their eyes, when they took leave of her, that she sent away grateful hearts.
_July_ 1830 .-- Indisposition has interrupted my journal for several weeks, and idleness has prolonged the chasm.