I knew hardly any one,
and was quite unaccustomed to the great world, so that, though the
Prince's dame de compagnie was very kind, I seemed to belong to no
one in that great room, where the ladies were sitting in long rows,
and the gentlemen parading before them, paying their court to one
after another, while the space in the middle was left free for some
distinguished pair to dance the menuet de la cour.
The first person I saw, whom I knew, was the Duchess of Longueville,
more beautiful than when I had met her before as Mademoiselle de
Bourbon, perfectly dazzling, indeed, with her majestic bearing and
exquisite complexion, but the face had entirely lost that innocent,
wistful expression that had so much enchanted me before. Half a
dozen gentlemen were buzzing round her, and though I once caught her
eye she did not know me, and no wonder, for I was much more changed
than she was. However, there I stood forlorn, in an access of
English shyness, not daring to take a chair near any of the
strangers, and looking in vain for my mother or one of my brothers.
'Will not Madame take a seat beside me?' said a kind voice. 'I think
I have had the honour of making her acquaintance,' she added, as our
eyes met; 'it is the Gildippe of happier times.'
Then I knew her for Mademoiselle d'Argennes, now duchess of
Montausieur, the same who had been so kind to me at the Hotel de
Rambouillet on my first arrival at Paris.
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