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294 she only wanted fashion. The ré-union to-day was political as that of the Field of the Cloth of Gold; splendour was at once to conciliate and to dazzle; not an orange-tree but had a purpose,—not an acacia but was charged, not only with its flowers, but "with Ulysses' fate." Notoriety is born of novelty; and exertion and imagination were alike exhausted to give character to the fête. Grecian temples were surrounded by hawthorn hedges,—Turkish tents stood in the shade of the oaks,—and one Chinese pagoda was dexterously entwined with honeysuckle; there were conservatories filled with the rarest plants, and avenues with ladies walking about as if in a picture; ices were served in the grotto; and servants in the Oriental costume handed almond-cakes. On the turf-sweep before the house—her head heavy with feathers, her ears with diamonds, and her heart with anxiety—stood the hostess. Every nation has it characteristic—and an Englishwoman's is standing, distributing her smiles, as if, as some one has observed, she had bought them, like her rouge, wholesale.

"This do I for your applause, O Athenians!" Thus did the conqueror of the world apostrophise the inhabitants of a city, who, if they