Though
only fourteen, she looks twenty, but has something fresh, engaging,
and girlish about her.
I attended not only at the presentation, but at the ball given at
the Tuileries directly after. These are fine shows, as the suite of
apartments is very handsome, brilliantly lighted,--the French ladies
surpassing all others in the art of dress; indeed, it gave me much
pleasure to see them. Certainly there are many ugly ones; but they are
so well dressed, and have such an air of graceful vivacity, that
the general effect was of a flower-garden. As often happens, several
American women were among the most distinguished for positive beauty;
one from Philadelphia, who is by many persons considered the prettiest
ornament of the dress circle at the Italian opera, was especially
marked by the attention of the king. However, these ladies, even if
here a long time, do not attain the air and manner of French
women. The magnetic fluid that envelops them is less brilliant and
exhilarating in its attractions.
Among the crowd wandered Leverrier, in the costume of Academician,
looking as if he had lost, not found, his planet. French _savants_ are
more generally men of the world, and even men of fashion, than those
of other climates; but, in his case, he seemed not to find it easy to
exchange the music of the spheres for the music of fiddles.
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