The Queen-Regent wore none, so why should I? Moreover, my
mother said that it would not be good taste to put on any jewels
among the English.
Alas! I could see why, as the salon filled with gentlemen and ladies,
far fewer of the last than the first, for some wives had been left at
home with their children to keep possession of the estates, and send
what supplies they could to their lords in exile. Some, like brave
Lady Fanshawe, traveled backwards and forwards again and again on
their husbands' affairs; and some who were at Paris could not afford
a servant nor leave their little children, and others had no dress
fit to appear in. And yet some of the dresses were shabby enough--
frayed satin or faded stained brocade, the singes and the creases
telling of hard service and rough usage. The gentlemen were not much
better: some had their velvet coats worn woefully at the elbows, and
the lace of their collars darned; indeed those were the best off, for
there were some who had no ladies to take care of them, whose fine
Flanders lace was in terrible holes.
Some gallants indeed there were to ruffle it as sprucely as ever, and
there were a few who had taken service as musketeers or archers of
the guard; but these were at that time few, for the King was still
living, and they did not despair of an accommodation which would soon
bring them home again. As my mother had predicted, the gentlemen
with the ragged lace tried in vain to affect indifference to the good
things on the buffet, till they had done their devoir by me as their
hostess.
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