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Rh event, but who all participated in that love of being present wherever there was anything fresh to be seen. An Academician would say that soirées of the world are collections of flowers which attract inconstant butterflies, famished bees, and buzzing drones.

No one could dispute that the rooms were splendidly illuminated, the light gleamed on the gold moldings and the silk hangings; and all the bad taste of this furniture, which had only its richness to boast of, shone in its splendor. Mademoiselle Eugénie was dressed with elegant simplicity; a figured white silk dress, a white rose, half-concealed in