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nald had followed the strong bent of his own thoughts and wishes, and before the remarks of Madame de St. Clair were concluded, he had moved forward in the direction of the supposed signorina.

It may easily be imagined that a spirited young man would not rest quite satisfied with such an indefinite assurance as that given by Madame de St. Clair of the identity of Reginald's beautiful dream with the Signorina Visconti. He was too much interested not to inquire more closely, and half an hour after Madame de St. Clair had given her very patriotic opinion on the merits of our ladies, she saw Reginald conversing with Constance, and a wonderful degree of frankness and unaffected cordiality seemed to characterize their first introduction. The supposed signorina was replying with an arch smile to something Reginald had said to her, as Madame de St. Clair passed by them on her way out; and this circumstance, trifling as it was, sufficed completely to mystify her. She well knew that a young Italian lady, brought up in seclusion like that of a convent, would not dare to bestow a smile on any cavalier, especially one young, handsome, and a stranger.

But Reginald saw not the look of astonishment which Madame de St. Clair threw on him as she passed, nor did he see any thing in the room, in the house, in the world, but the beautiful creature before him. He was already ages in love. He looked at those eyes beaming with a thousand bright happy thoughts; at that fair brow so placid and then so arch; at the fairy dimples around the chiselled lip; and each succeeding expression was more lovely than the last.

Constance saw only an elegant young man of whom she had often heard, who was associated with all her pleasant remembrances of home, and whose fine expressive eyes were bent upon her with an admiration that a less keen perception would have found it dif ficult to misunderstand.

As Madame de St. Clair passed, they were speaking of home—of Vivian, of Evelyn; and the arch smile accompanied the confession, that Constance had until the present moment believed or affirmed Reginald was only a being of Evelyn's fancy, and had always contended that he was a myth.

7

CHAPTER XII.

REMINISCENCES FOR THE DILETTANTI,

THE Palais Royal, or the Palais National, or the Palais Imperial, as it is called by turns, at the period to which our story refers, was altogether different from what it has ever been since. The mere traveller, or the temporary sojourner in the great metropolis of France, regards the Palais Royal only as a curious collection of shops, where every thing may be bargained for and bought, perhaps cheaper than elsewhere, because the articles so lavishly and ostentatiously displayed are generally of a more showy and less substantial quality than those of more regular establishments,—as the place where the Trois Frères provençaux hold their court, dispensing costly luxuries in all the delicacies in and out of every season, indicated by the colossal fruits always displayed at the windows, or they have seen it, until very recently, a place of exposition publique for any thing to be exhibited, especially an annual show of enormous collections of pictures, each worse than the other, or if a few gems might be found among them, they

appeared as would "two grains of wheat in a bushel of chaff."

At the period of our narrative, the Palais Royal was a magnificent ducal residence. Nominal royalty was at the Tuileries, the actual influence was at the Palais Royal. The Duke of Orleans, the wealthiest and most powerful subject in Europe, held his court, for such it might be called, at this princely palace which it had been his pleasure and pride to adorn, and it was a palace to live in as well as to look at, for art had been exhausted in giving it every comfort as well as every luxury.

Envy was silenced by the conduct and deportment of his amiable consort and her lovely family consisting of eight children, the eldest of whom was the Duc de Chartres, who had not attained his majority, but even at that youthful age giving, in his regal and gracious bearing, the indication of those amiable qualities that for a period, brief alas! made him the pride and darling of France. He was of a noble height; his clear blue eyes were expressive but calm, and the fairness of a complexion that might have been deemed effeminate was relieved by a light moustache, some shades darker than the chestnut brown of his hair.

The two princesses, Louise and Marie, we have already adverted to as among the few specimens of youth and beauty permitted to find their way into the courtof the sovereign under the ancien régime; and their fair young faces among the aged courtiers, and time-faded or rouge-renewed beauties of the court, looked like roses surrounded by their attending thorns.

The sisters presented an entire contrast in person, though they were equally distinguished by the gentle graces of their manners. The elder, the Princess Louise, better known since as the Queen of Belgium, was a fair, the fairest, blonde. Soft blue eyes and hair of the lightest shade of golden brown accorded well with her delicate beauty. Her rounded form showed to most advantage in her evening costume, which admitted of a display of her exquisitely fair neck, and shoulders, and arms.

The Princess Marie, whose talent in sculpture has rendered her one of the celebrités in that beautiful art, was, in coloring and figure, the exact opposite of her Hebe sister. Her slight form was taller, her complexion paler and less fair, her hair dark, and her dark eyes, shaded by long black lashes, were timidly cast down, as if her thoughts were often far away from the gay and brilliant scenes by which she was surrounded.

The Princess Clementine was a beautiful child, with long flowing ringlets, a fine complexion, and an air that would have graced "the daughter of a hundred kings."

Of the Dukes Nemours, Joinville, D’Aumale and Montpensier, the world has since so often heard, that it would appear like recalling the remembrance of a dream to say that the first was a fair-haired youth, small in stature but noble in bearing; the second, a handsome dark-eyed boy, just preparing for his first marine expedition; and the two last named, sprightly children who were encouraged in their visits to the drawing-room, to distribute rose-colored programmes

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