diminished. They were even more active than ever since the marriage of the
Count de Provence, who, in an underhanded way, instigated his wife to show
countenance to Madame du Barri, and who allowed, if he did not encourage,
the mistress and her friends to speak slightingly of the dauphiness in his
presence. But, as Marie Antoinette felt firmer in her own position, she
could afford to disregard the malice of these caballers more than she had
felt that she could do at first, and even to defy them. On one occasion
that the Count de Provence was imprudent enough to discuss some of his
schemes with the door open while she was in the next room, she told him
frankly that she had heard all that he said, and reproached him for his
duplicity; and the dauphin coming in at the moment, she flew to him,
throwing her arms round his neck, and telling him how she appreciated his
honesty and candor, and how the more she compared him with the others, the
more she saw his superiority. Indeed, she soon began to find that the
Countess de Provence was as little to be trusted as her husband; and the
only member of the family whom she really liked, or of whom she had at all
a favorable opinion, was the Count d'Artois, who, though not yet out of
the school-room, "showed," as she told her mother, "sentiments of honesty
which he could never have learned of his governor.[8]"

Her indefatigable guardian, Mercy, reported to the empress that she
improved every day. He had learned to conceive a very high idea of her
abilities; and he dilated with especial satisfaction on the powers of
conversation which she was developing; on her wit and readiness in
repartee; on her originality, as well as facility of expression; and on
her perfect possession of the royal art of speaking to a whole company
with such notice of each member of it, that each thought himself the
person to whom her remarks were principally addressed. She possessed
another accomplishment, also, of great value to princes--a tenacious
recollection of faces and names. And she had made herself acquainted with