_méchanceté_.

"Received many, and the kindest, thanks from Lady Portsmouth, _père_ and
_mère_, for my match-making. I don't regret it, as she looks the
countess well, and is a very good girl. It is odd how well she carries
her new honours. She looks a different woman, and high-bred, too. I had
no idea that I could make so good a peeress.

"Went to the play with Hobhouse. Mrs. Jordan superlative in Hoyden, and
Jones well enough in Foppington. _What plays!_ what wit!--helas!
Congreve and Vanbrugh are your only comedy. Our society is too insipid
now for the like copy. Would _not_ go to Lady Keith's. Hobhouse thought
it odd. I wonder _he_ should like parties. If one is in love, and wants
to break a commandment and covet any thing that is there, they do very
well. But to go out amongst the mere herd, without a motive, pleasure,
or pursuit--'sdeath! 'I'll none of it.' He told me an odd report,--that
_I_ am the actual Conrad, the veritable Corsair, and that part of my
travels are supposed to have passed in privacy. Um!--people sometimes
hit near the truth; but never the whole truth. H. don't know what I was
about the year after he left the Levant; nor does any
one--nor--nor--nor--however, it is a lie--but, 'I doubt the equivocation
of the fiend that lies like truth!'

"I shall have letters of importance to-morrow. Which, * *, * *, or * *?
heigho!--* * is in my heart, * * in my head, * * in my eye, and the
_single_ one, Heaven knows where. All write, and will be answered.
'Since I have crept in favour with myself, I must maintain it;' but _I_
never 'mistook my person,' though I think others have.

"* * called to-day in great despair about his mistress, who has taken a