A FRENCH INTERIOR.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 17, 9 July 1864, Page 3

A FRENCH INTERIOR.

(From " French Life," in Fraser's .Magazine.)

French ladies give up so much more thought and time to dress than the English do ; I mean in such ways as changing a gown repeatedly in the "course of a day if occasion requires, taking care never to wear a better dress when an inferior one will do no, ziot even for five unnecessary minutes. And when handsome articles are taken off, tliey are put by, with as much care as if they were sleeping babies laid down in a cot. Silver paper is put between every fold of velvet or silk, cushions of paper are placed so as to keep the right sit of any part, ribbons are rolled up, soiled spots are taken out immediately, and thus tlie freshness of dress which we so much admire in Frenchwomen is preserved ; but, as I said, at a considerable expense of time and thought in the case of people of moderate means. Madame declares that she knows many a young French couple who have reduced their table to the lowest degree of meagreness in order that the wife (especially) might be well dressed. She says that dress is the only expenditure for wliich a Frenchwoman will go in debt. I remember some years ago hearing a letter from the Prince de la Ligne read at Lord E 's. He gave an account in it of the then recent coronation at Moscow, and went on to speak of the French Emperor's politics. As one of his engines | of influence, the Prince gravely named " la luxe de la toilet-tej 7 as an acknowledged political means. At the time, I wondered in silence ; but things have come to my knowledge since then wliich make me understand what was then meant. Six years ago a friend took me to call on Madame de . It was a raw, splashy February day, and as we walked through the slushy streets, half covered with melting snow, my friend told me [something about the lady we were going to see. Madame de was married to the eldest son of a Frenchman of rank ; she herself belonged to an old family. Her husband was a distinguished member of one of the academies, and held a high position among those who had devoted themselves to his particular branch of recondite knowledge. Madame de - was one of the" lionnes" of Paris, and as a specimen of her class we were now going to see her. She and her husband had somewhere about seven thousand a year, but for economy's sake they lived in an apartment rather than a house. They had, I think, two or three children. I recollect feeling how out of place my substantial winter dress and my splashed boots were the moment I entered the little hall or ante-room to her apartment. The iloor was covered with delicate Indian matting, and round the wall ran a bordering of .snowdrops, crocuses, violets, and primroses, as fresh and flowering as if they were growing in a wood, but all planted by some Paris gardener in boxes of soil, and renewed perpetually. Then we went into the lady's own boudoir. She was about thirty, of a very peculiar style of beauty, which grew upon me every moment I looked. She had black hair, long black curling eyelashes, long soft grey eyes, a smooth olive skin, a dimple, and most beautiful teeth. She was in mourning ; her thick hair fastened up with great pins of pearls and amethyst, her ear-rings, brooch, bracelets, all the same. Her gown was of black watered silk, lined with violet silk (wherever a lining could be seen) , her boots black watered silk, her petticoat of stiff white silk, with a wreath of violetcoloured embroidery just above the hem. Her manners were soft and caressing to the last degree ; and when she was told that I had come to see her as a specimen of her class, she was prettily amused, and took pains to show me all her arrangements and " coquetteries." In her boudoir there was not a speck of gilding ; that would have been bad taste, she said. Around the mirrors, framed in white polished wood, creeping plants were trained so that the tropical flowers fell over and were reflected in the glass. There was a fire, fed with cedar-wood chips ; and the crimson velvet curtains on each side of the grate had perfumes quilted within their white silk linings. The window-curtains were trimmed with point [ lace. We went through a little antechamber to Madame de 's bedroom — an oblong room, with her bed filling up half the space on one side ; the other all wardrobe, with six or seven doors covered with looking-glass, and opening into as many closets. After we had admired the rare Palissy ware, the lace draperies of the mirrors, the ornaments on the toilettetable, and the pink silk curtains ofthe bed, she laughed her little soft laugh, and told me that now I should see how she amused herself as she lay in bed ofa morning ; and pulling something like a bellrope which hung at the head of her bed, the closet doors flew open, and displayed gowns hung on wire frames (such as you may see at any milliner's) ; gowns for the evening and gowns for the morning, with the appropriate head-dresses, chausseures and gloves, lying by them. " I have not many gowns," said she. " I do not like having too many, for I never wear them after they are a month old ; I give them to my maid then, for I never wear anything I had ever seen before as I had expected. But to go on with the bearing she had upon the Prince de la Ligne's letter, I must not forget to say that Madame de expressed very strong political opinions, ancl all distinctly antiBonapartean. Among other things she mentioned, was the fact, that when her husband went to pay his respects, as a member of the Academy of , to the Emperor, at the Tuileries, she would not allow him to use their carriage (nor, indeed, was he willing to do it), but went in a hackney coach, saying that the arms of the De- s should never be seen in the courts of a usurper. Two years afterwards I came to Paris, and I inquired after M. and Madame de — — . To my infinite surprise, I heard that ho had become a senator, one of that body who receive about a thousand pounds a-year from Groyornment, and 'who are admitted to that dignity by the express will of *tKo Emperor. liow in tho world could.it have come about ? And Madame, too, at all tho balls and receptions at the

riesi The^arms of the De — H— weren'6 longer invisible in the- courts -of -the- -..-- ~ usurper. What was th,e- reason ; .of this change ? Madame's extravagance/-- Their incdme would not suffice for her,' yluxe-rde ■ , la toilette," and tbe senator's salary waß a j-\ very acceptable addition. r y, :i