CONVENT MATRIMONIALS. [From the " Atlas."]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 495, 11 January 1851, Page 3

CONVENT MATRIMONIALS. [From the " Atlas."]

Notwithstanding the compulsory pause which takes place in Paris gaieties during the Holy Week, yel do the streets and Boulevards present ai much animation as in the gayest time 5 . A new kmd of dissipation siezes hold upon the population, the following and comparing the different preachers, whose various methods of attraction are canvassed with as much eagerness in the evening reunions as those of the different popular actors at other keasons of the year. Lacordaire and his Socialism, Ravignan and his Bour« bonistn, Boutain and his Spiritualism, are all acted over again at those evening receptions where daiicingis forbidden, and where the csprits forts assemble. The Faubourg St, Germain lies completely hidden en re'

Iraitc; many of the fine ladies of that quarter have renewed the good old custom of the times of Louis Quatorze of performing their week's penance in one or other of the religious houses with which Paris yet abounds. The Convent of the Visitation, in the Rue de Vangirad, is the fashionable retreat this year, and here, at this moment, are assembled all the Legitimist ladies of the noble faubourg; some say to puisue their devotions with greater facility, others gay to arrange rich and advantageous marriages for their sons and daughters. It is a certain fact, thai moat of the great alliances which takes place every spring, befoi? the breaking up of the Paris Society, have been all mad.', up at lome of those holy houses during Fashion Week, The great convent at Chaiilot had been for a Jong", while the most fashioria'ble of all these places of refuge, '. uutil the deiperate schism which took place last ye*r, between two of our first rate lionnes, loaders ofPriris' fashion, completely dispersed ths Hah fog es of mttigue whioh habitually gathered there, and drove it to the Visitation. It appears that lhe abbess, who is considered in the re'igious world as ■ mailresie femmc, had been left the guardianship of a young girl of great, beauty and immense wealth. The child bad been lcff to her'careby her aunt, a devotee of the first water, who had expressed a hope that "she would live and dio with the good abbess," evidently a disguised wi-.li that she might one day take the veil in that convent. Some of the 6ld ladies of the faubourg, who seem to pass their lives in going from convent to convent, like the ' old match-makers by profession, who frequent the . harems of Constantinople, toon diecovered this treasure of Chadlot, and determined that the sacrifice intended by tbe stupid old aunt should never be. The £irl w*9 nobly born, belo«g4ng to^oneofthe first families of Alencon, exceedingly beautiful and accomplished, with, moreover, one of the most splendid dot ever held out to the cupidity of the most insatiable fortunehunter in all France. The retiaite at the Convent of Chaiilot grew to be most splendid from the time that the girl became of an age to marry. Not a single high name in France but sent its representative in some shape or another to this religious congie^s, until the abbess was compelled to send away many very desirable applicants for admission for want of room tv receive them. This was, indeed, a joyouq time for the convent. From Palm Sunday to the Tuesday after Easter, nor r day was allowed to pass without uomjge being paid to the chapel in the shape of some costly piescnt, cither silver candlesticks, or gilt'reHquaires, or pictures of price, until the little chsptKhas grown quite a rau« scum of curiosities. Meanwhile, the abbess acted with the greatest candour, always expressing her greatest regret that her pupil had no vocation for a leligious ife, and leaving her entirely free in the choice of a husband. Two of our greatest duchesses now began to ply their batteries with ecjualtkill, both sure of succeiß. The son of the one, an ancient Paris tone, of thirty-five yean of age, who has long been the gl^ss oi faihion, was put forward as one candidate for the hand of the poor girl, who in her innocent simplicity, expressed her admiration of his person, his manners, find his dress. Plow, could she do otherwise ; the had never seen any other man in her life but the foolishlooking young professor of rhetoric in the convent, whose pink and white countenance, with his long yellow hair, reminded one of the flat stone cherub looking out over the pulpit in the chapel. The grandson of the other Udy was the second pretender. A simple •collegian, just let loose from his tutors. He, too, was approved by the young lady, though compared by her to the professor of rhetoric, which rather offended the grandmother, until she remembered that the poor innocent child could have no other sttndurd of companion, God bless her! considering the holy and secluded life she had always led. The whole idiaile was passed in this uncertainty; sometimes the lieifcss seemed to lean towards the rone, at others the collegian carried the day. The two ladies, meanwhile, grew to hate each other most cordially ; the whole convent took arms for one or the other of the combatants. The saintly abbess looked and smiled at both ; the young girl followed with much ardour her devotions, as well as her s'uilies in rhetoric and when the holy time was over, all parties became clamorous for a ilecis ion. Both of the old ladies were full of hope and joy when told by the abbess that the decision of the heiress was already taken, and in a few days would be made known to the world. Both waited in tremulous anxiety, until a printed letter arrived to each, giving the announcement •' On the paitof the Rev. Mother of the Blessed Older of , at Chaiilot, of the maniage of her nephew, M. de B , professor of ihetoric at the college of C, with her pupil Mdlle. de F., of Alencon." Imagine the consternation in the Faubou-g. Fashion has departed from the convent, perhaps lor ever, but what cares the abbess ? The chapel is full of Ueasure; her Holy Virgin is now one of the most splendidly attired in tha whole diocese of Paris. Saint Symphorieui' toe-nail is now enriched with real atones, no longer glass beads, while the petrified fl,ike of Saint Pencrnces spittle it now exhibited on a real golden, spatula ; none of mock Ruolz and Elkington, but real solid gold. She has made belief more jwpuLr than the greatest philan'hropist, for she has distributed, no longer than a week ago, a whole poiHuH of 'glass chaplets, blest by the Pope himself, and sent by her nephew, the professor, from Italy, where he is how on his bridal tour with his wife. The laughter against the baffled old ladies has been great, ana the reputation of the abbess as a maitresse Jemme established upon a firmer basis than ever.

Learned Birds. — A private exhibition of a family of goldfinches, cardinals, and other domestic birds, took place on Thursday, at No. 2, Baker-street, Portman-gq-iare, which promises to become extreme!) popular. Madlle Vandermarßcb, the instructress of these feathered aspirants for publicity, has brought her teaching to a remarkable degree of peifection, and some of the results are really astonishing. The company present choofee cards— but private marks upon sovereigns — whisper words to one another, and the like when the birds in question, at the command of their mistress, hop out of the golden cages in which, they are placed, and select »Ju elucidations from a tray of tablets, with the exactness of vvizardi. How the little creatures have been taught to do all this we are at a lost to conceive ; but they uevrr make mistakes. On the contrary, they fillip tke cards from the pack with a certainty that provokes admiration. It is aniUMng to sec them search for the proposed card ; and watch the pertinacity with which they peck about the edges until they delect the one they seek for ; and not less so tht fluttering energy they expend while extracting it from the heap in which it lies buiied. Madlle Vimderniarscb, wand in hand, superintends the operations, but seems, nevertheless, to leave tho biids entirely to thembelves, and no conjuring was ever move accurate in its disclosuies. The patieuce and ingenuity or' this lady in thus establishing a species of intelligence in the branch of the creation that is not usually very ready to be taught, aie forcibly exemplified in tins exhibition. — Exanunet Grey Hair,— -Some tinio ago, a person wl.o paid a vi-jt to a lunatic asylum in Hie West of England .said to one of the inmates," Why llichawl, your head is &<Hlmg gray." "It is only blossoming for the uexl woild," wa» the beiulilul reply.