Clive remarks that "the neighbouring hotel has curiously changed its
destination. One of the members of the Directory had it; and, no doubt,
in the groves of its garden, Madame Tallien, and Madame Recamier, and
Madame Beauharnais have danced under the lamps. Then a Marshal of the
Empire inhabited it. Then it was restored to its legitimate owner,
Monsieur le Marquis de Bricquabracque, whose descendants, having a
lawsuit about the Bricquabracque succession, sold the hotel to the
Convent."
After some talk about nuns, Ethel says, "There were convents in England.
She often thinks she would like to retire to one;" and she sighs as if
her heart were in that scheme.
Clive, with a laugh, says, "Yes. If you could retire after the season,
when you were very weary of the balls, a convent would be very nice. At
Rome he had seen San Pietro in Montorio and Sant Onofrio, that delightful
old place where Tasso died: people go and make a retreat there. In the
ladies' convents, the ladies do the same thing--and he doubts whether
they are much more or less wicked after their retreat, than gentlemen and
ladies in England or France.
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