when her card was sent up with a request for admission, and still more so
to find that in spite of years and of the furrows which it pleases Time to
plough in the loveliest faces, La Guera retains a profusion of fair curls
without one gray hair, a set of beautiful white teeth, very fine eyes, and
great vivacity.

Her sister, the Marquesa de Juluapa, lately dead, is said to have been also
a woman of great talent and extraordinary conversational powers; she is
another of the ancient noblesse who has dropped off. The physician who
attended her in her last illness, a Frenchman of the name of Plan, in great
repute here, has sent in a bill to her executors of ten thousand dollars,
which, although it does not excite any great astonishment, the family
refuse to pay, and there is a lawsuit in consequence. The extortions of
medical men in Mexico, especially of foreign physicians, have arrived at
such a height, that a person of moderate fortune must hesitate before
putting himself into their hands.[1] A rich old lady in delicate health,
and with no particular complaint, is a surer fund for them than a silver-
mine.

[Footnote 1: The Mexican Government has since taken this matter into
consideration, and is making regulations which render it necessary for a
medical man to possess a certain degree of knowledge, and to have resided a
specified time in the city, before he is permitted to practise; they are
also occupied in fixing a certain sum for medical attendance.]

I found La Guera very agreeable, and a perfect living chronicle. She is
married to her third husband, and had three daughters, all celebrated
beauties; the Countess de Regla, who died in New York, and was buried in
the cathedral there; the Marquesa de Guadalupe, also dead, and the Marquesa
de A---a, now a handsome widow. We spoke of Humboldt, and talking of