"Oh! _this_, at least, is no vision to mock my misery!--I am awake--_this_ is no dream! Oh, my dear, dear Adelaide!--my darling child is it you?"
The duchess sat up in her bed, and warmly embracing Adelaide, while the fond, maternal tear moistened as it fell upon her daughter's cheek, she said:--"May heaven ever bless and protect thee, my dear and duteous daughter, and its gracious mercy be always thine! for thou hast ever been dutiful to thy parents, and obedient to thy Creator!"
The duchess now arose, and as neither her Grace nor Adelaide expended any unnecessary waste of time at their toilette, they were soon at their post at the breakfast table. Sir Patricius rung, and desired the waiter to place a Malines ham and a bottle of Louvain beer on the side-table, both of which he declared were excellent in their kind; some of the ladies tasted the ham, but the Louvain beer remained untasted except by the provident Baronet himself, who smacked his lips, and observed that it was passing good; and then noticed that there were three kinds of it, that which lay upon the table was of the weakest sort; the next was called Caniac, which was to be met with at the tables of the noblesse and the wealthier bourgeois; the strongest kind is called Peterman, which, he observed, was sold at the coffee-houses in the evening; and in such repute is Louvain beer held, he said, that annually one hundred and fifty thousand tuns are brewed for exportation; "but for my poor part," next continued Sir Patricius, (filling out a second glass,) "I have slight objection to quaff it at the fountain head!--"_Satius est petere fontes, quam sectari rivulos._"--Ha, ha, ha!
Breakfast having terminated, and the practical panegyric of Sir Patricius on Louvain beer and Malines ham being duly exemplified and concluded, the duchess sallied forth in search of a furnished house, which her Grace intended to engage for a term not less than that of a year. Three or four houses were inspected, but they were found not to answer; one was too small to accommodate the family, another was indifferently furnished, a third was objected to from its unpleasantness of situation; a fourth was examined, which was agreeably situated in the Rue Ducale, opposite to the park; this seemed to promise well, Sir Patricius rang the hall bell, and a tall, meagre figure, in a rich flowered silk robe _de chambre_, and his head enveloped in a red night-cap, opened the door; it was Monsieur Passemier, the proprietor of the house, who grinned and bowed most obsequiously; he was about sixty-five years of age, but seemed in spirits, and also in activity, to enjoy all the vigour of youth. He now proceeded to show the house: the hall, or vestibule, was spacious, and very handsomely ornamented with marble tables, bronze busts on brackets, and a statue of white marble of the god of silence. The garden, which adjoined the hall, was very tastefully laid out; a corridore of trellis work, entwined with parasite plants, led from the hall to the garden, where several walks, arched above, formed pleasant arbours, through and around which the clustering vines had entwined themselves, and now displayed their luxuriant bunches of red and white grapes.