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 attention, quickly neared the main entrance to the hall, followed by a host of cavaliers with whom she was evidently carrying on a teasing conversation, for her blooming cheeks and expressive eyes overflowed with willfulness.

Maria Felicia Felsenburk was really a remarkable beauty. She was the only lady in the ball-room that was not painted and laced, and yet her complexion was the most beautiful, her form the most graceful and the bearing of her body the most dignified. A thin white dress, interwoven richly with silver, hung loosely down to her feet, and her black hair, smoothed back from her face, waved far down over her waist. Everything about her was easy, firm, resolute, determined, and yet pretty, artistic and natural. Her head was not decorated with ribbons, feathers, flowers, such as overloaded the steepled hair of the other ladies; only one diamond star glittered above her forehead. To the Emperor, watching her with animation, the star seemed to be her ensign.