to see her; at a charity fair she held the plate, which was heaped with thousands of francs offered at the shrine of her beauty, rather than to the poor; thus finely verifying the words of Shakespeare, "All orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth." If she entered a drawing-room, all eyes forsook every other object to gaze upon Madame Récamier.

She danced in her younger years that wonderful shawl dance which Madame de Staël has described in Corinne, in which a light shawl became in turn, in the shifting postures of the wearer, a girdle, a veil, and a drapery, than which nothing could be imagined more graceful, refined, or picturesque.

She had exquisite taste in costume, and in the harmony of colors, preferring for her own person white robes, with varied material and ornament. She never wore diamonds, even in her days of fortune, having a predilection for pearls. Her goodness of soul attracted even more than her beauty. She had a benignity of nature which made friends of all who approached her. She disarmed all enmity, she softened all asperity, she mitigated every rudeness. She carried to its highest perfection the noble art of friendship.

Her intellectual gifts have perhaps been too much subordinated, in the public estimate, to her other qualities. "She was a model of beauty and of virtue," says the keenest of French critics, Ste. Beuve, who knew her well.

But what of her intellect? She was a careful student of books from her earliest years. She organized her life so as to devote her morning hours uninterruptedly to the improvement of her mind. A rapid skimming of the daily journals, then a more careful glance through the best of the new books, followed by systematic reading of some great author, always on hand, filled up the hours. Few women had more thorough appreciation of the beauties of literature. Though she wrote no books, and though most of her letters were destroyed with her journal, by her own direction, the remains which we have of her writings exhibit, says Ste. Beuve, a clearness, a refinement, an elegance of expression, and a natural amenity, which please and captivate the reader. She was fond of discussion, and held her own upon the gravest themes, as well as upon

lighter ones. No one ever told a story better. She had the finest sense of humor, but was never known in all her life to say an unkind thing of any one. Good judgment and unfailing tact were the faculties for which she was most remarkable; she was never at a loss in any circumstances, however embarrassing, what to do, any more than what to say. With this perfect self-possession, there was yet in her manner a slight tinge of shyness, and her instinctive modesty was so combined with dignity that no one ever attempted to take a liberty with her.

With her various and manifold attractions, it is not surprising that she had many ardent suitors at her feet: men of rank, men of letters, men of fortune lost their hearts to her; Prince Lucien Bonaparte, Montmorency, Gen. Bernadotte, Prince August, of Prussia, Ampère, Ballanche, Benjamin Constant, Chateaubriand-all thought they could not live without her. She was discreet enough to preserve her equipoise, even on the perilous verge of passion, and to convert them all from lovers into life-long friends. Tenderly beloved as she was all her life, the severest critic must admit that no breath of suspicion ever clouded the pure white of her reputation.

Women are proverbially rigorous judges of the shining or distinguished ornaments of their own sex; but all their recorded judgments which we possess concur in admiration for Madame Récamier. Madame de Staël loved and admired her; Madame Mohl, who knew her from a child, wrote: "She was the most entertaining person I ever knew." Even the critical Madame de Genlis said "She is charming on the slightest occasion, and still more charming when intimately known. If Madame Récamier had not been so handsome, every one would have praised the accuracy and discrimination of her mind. Every day increases my attachment to her." Mademoiselle O'Meara writes enthusiastically, "Madame Récamier rose like a vision of grace and sweetness to gladden the returning exiles."

The beautiful Duchess of Devonshire said of her: "At first, she is good, then she is intellectual, and, after this, she is very beautiful." Sainte-Beuve writes of "the angelic co