Marmontels and D'Alemberts, the charm of the Du Deffand _soirées_, and
the originals for the charming piquancies and exquisite impertinences of
L'Espinasse, and the _coterieisme_ of Paris.

All that I had seen of the peerage of our haughty country was dim and
dull to the gay glitter of the crowd around me. Nature never moulded two
national characters so distinct in all points, but the French exterior
carries all before it. Diamonds and decorations sparkled on every side.
The dresses of the women were as superb as if they had never known fear
or flight; and the conversation was as light, sportive, and _badinant_,
as if we were all waiting in the antechamber of Versailles till the
chamberlain of Marie Antoinette should signify the royal pleasure to
receive us. Here was stateliness to the very summit of human pride, but
it was softened by the taste of its display; the most easy familiarity,
yet guarded by the most refined distinctions The _bon-mot_ was uttered
with such natural avoidance of offence, and the arch allusion was so
gracefully applied, that the whole gave me the idea of a new use of
language. They were _artistes_ of conversation, professors of a study of
society, as much as painters might be of the style of the Bolognese or
the Venetian school.

I was delighted, but I was still more deeply interested; for the chief
topics of the evening were those on which public curiosity was most
anxiously alive at the moment--the hazards of the revolutionary tempest,
which they had left raging on the opposite shore. Yet, "Vive la France!"
we had our cotillon, and our songs to harp and piano, notwithstanding
the shock of governments.

But we had scarcely sat down to the supper which Mordecai's hospitality
and his daughter's taste had provided for us--and a most costly display