of the services she
then received, she ever retained a grateful recollection. She had been
most affected by the attentions of Madame Dumoulin, and felt great
delight, in after years, in adverting to the subject. At this period
of general scarcity, this benevolent lady every day entertained at her
table a party of those whose means were more limited. Madame de
Beauharnais was a regular guest. Bread was at this time so scarce as
to be a subject of legal enactment, restricting the quantity allowed
to each person to two ounces. Guests at the houses of the most
opulent, even, were expected to bring their own bread. Aware that
Madame de Beauharnais was in more distressed circumstances than the
rest, Madame Dumoulin dispensed with this practice in her favor,
thereby justifying the expression of the latter, that she received
_her daily bread_ from her.

Tallien, Barras, and those who succeeded to power, on the fall of the
terrorists, being themselves not destitute of refinement, were
desirous that society should emerge from the state of barbarism into
which it had fallen. Madame Tallien, distinguished for grace, beauty,
and brilliancy of wit, exerted all her charms to diffuse a taste for
the courtesies and amenities of civilized life, and thus to soften the
sanguinary spirit which had led to so many atrocities. Calling to her
assistance her intimate friend, Madame de Beauharnais, the task was
soon, to some extent, accomplished. Private individuals did not yet
dare to make any show of wealth by receiving company habitually at
their own houses. Public balls, and public concerts at the Hotels
Thelusson and Richelieu, were the fashion. Here persons of all
opinions, of all castes, intermingled, and laughed and danced together
in the utmost harmony. The influence of Madame Tallien was at this
time very great, and under her protection many an _emigre_ returned,
and many a royalist emerged from the hiding-place to figure in these
gay scenes. Most of them submitted with a good grace to the new order
of things. It sometimes chanced, however, that curiosity or ennui
would lead thither some who could not so readily lay aside feelings
and habits acquired under the old _regime_, and scenes would occur not
a little amusing to the philosophic observer, who, had he possessed
the gift of second sight, would have been doubly amused. One of these
is thus related by a contemporary. Madame de D. was one evening
persuaded, by the old Marquis d'Haute