y expected to
dress in black and live in retirement for a year. In a country where
the deepest affections are rarely connected with the marriage state,
and where no conventional prejudices exist as to the width of a hem or
the depth of a border, this is far more natural, and sometimes permits
of the wearer's real feelings being discerned, by the appearance of
the dress assumed on such occasions. Parents do not put on mourning
for their children, which strikes one as more strange, considering the
strong affection generally existing towards their offspring; and it
also appears customary to endeavour to shake off the grief attendant
on this loss by every expedient. I have seen an old man at the Opera
not a month after the death of his grown-up son, and was told it was
right and necessary he should have his mind diverted; and the same
plea was brought forward to justify the similar appearance of a lady
in her accustomed box, dressed in all the colours of the rainbow, only
a few days after the death of her sister's husband; the poor widow
being plunged in all the first bitterness of grief, as genuine and
profound as it has been my lot to witness. So far from perceiving any
impropriety in this action, if asked how she could have the heart to
visit any scene of amusement at such a moment, she would have replied,
that her sufferings had been so great, she required some _distrazione_
for the benefit of her health; and this reason, by her country-people
at least, would have been considered perfectly satisfactory.




CHAPTER VII.

   Decline of Carnival diversions—Dislike to being brought
     into contact with Austrians—The theatre—Public
     _Tombole_—Short-sighted policy of the Government.


It is Carnival-time, but only the name remains to mark the period
intervening between Christmas and Lent; all the masquerades and
revelries associated with the season are now suspended. Since the
Revolution of 1848-49, masks have been prohibited, from the facility
these disguises afforded for holding political meetings, and