...ad over my paper on Optimism and Pessimism and have got into the spirit of it. Maud's friends came at 3 P. M., among them Christian Ross, the painter, with Bjornstjerne Bjornson. February 16. To Mrs. Hurlburt 's reception.--Talked with Countess Blank, an American married to a Pole. She had much to say of the piety of her Arab servant, who, she says, swallows fire, cuts himself with sharp things, etc., as...