inveighed more vigorously than she did against her husband's addiction to
hunting. One evening, when he did not return from the field till the play
in the theatre was half over, she not only frowned upon him all the rest
of the entertainment, but when, after the company had retired, he began to
enter into an explanation of the cause of his delay, a scene ensued which
it will be best to give in the very words of Mercy's report to the
empress.

"The dauphiness made him a short but very energetic sermon, in which she
represented to him with vivacity all the evils of the uncivilized kind of
life he was leading. She showed him that no one of his attendants could
stand that kind of life, and that they would like it the less that his own
air and rude manners made no amends to those who were attached to his
train; and that, by following this plan of life, he would end by ruining
his health and making himself detested. The dauphin received this lecture
with gentleness and submission, confessed that he was wrong, promised to
amend, and formally begged her pardon. This circumstance is certainly very
remarkable, and the more so because the next day people observed that he
paid the dauphiness much more attention, and behaved toward her with a
much more lively affection than usual.[16]"

We do not, however, find in reality that the severity of her admonitions
produced any permanent diminution of his fondness for hunting and
shooting; but the gentleness of her general manners, and the delight which
he saw that all around her took in her graciousness, so far excited his
admiration that he began to follow her example. He said that "she had such
native grace that every thing which she did succeeded to perfection; that
it must be admitted that she was charming." And before the end of the
winter he had come to take an active part both in her Monday balls, and in
those which her ladies occasionally gave in her honor; "dancing himself