Letters of Two Brides

I saw many things in the room which ought to have been removed. Their

presence showed the carelessness with which people, busy with the

affairs of state, may treat their own, and also the little thought

which had been given since her death to this grand old lady, who will

always remain one of the striking figures of the eighteenth century.

Philippe seemed to divine something of the cause of my tears. He told

me that the furniture of the Princess had been left to me in her will

and that my father had allowed all the larger suites to remain

dismantled, as the Revolution had left them. On hearing this I rose,

and Philippe opened the door of the small drawing-room which leads

into the reception-rooms.

In these I found all the well-remembered wreckage; the panels above

the doors, which had contained valuable pictures, bare of all but

empty frames; broken marbles, mirrors carried off. In old days I was

afraid to go up the state staircase and cross these vast, deserted

rooms; so I used to get to the Princess' rooms by a small staircase

which runs under the arch of the larger one and leads to the secret

door of her dressing-room.

My suite, consisting of a drawing-room, bedroom, and the pretty

morning-room in scarlet and gold, of which I have told you, lies in

the wing on the side of the Invalides. The house is only separated

from the boulevard by a wall, covered with creepers, and by a splendid

avenue of trees, which mingle their foliage with that of the young

elms on the sidewalk of the boulevard. But for the blue-and-gold dome

of the Invalides and its gray stone mass, you might be in a wood.

The style of decoration in these rooms, together with their situation,

indicates that they were the old show suite of the duchesses, while

the dukes must have had theirs in the wing opposite. The two suites

are decorously separated by the two main blocks, as well as by the

central one, which contained those vast, gloomy, resounding halls

shown me by Philippe, all despoiled of their splendor, as in the days

of my childhood.

Philippe grew quite confidential when he saw the surprise depicted on

my countenance. For you must know that in this home of diplomacy the

very servants have a reserved and mysterious air. He went on to tell

me that it was expected a law would soon be passed restoring to the

fugitives of the Revolution the value of their property, and that my

father is waiting to do up his house till this restitution is made,

the king's architect having estimated the damage at three hundred

thousand livres.