ought to have been removed. Their
presence showed the carelessness with which people, busy with the
affairs of state, may treat their own, and also the little thought which
had been given since her death to this grand old lady, who will always
remain one of the striking figures of the eighteenth century. Philippe
seemed to divine something of the cause of my tears. He told me that the
furniture of the Princess had been left to me in her will and that my
father had allowed all the larger suites to remain dismantled, as the
Revolution had left them. On hearing this I rose, and Philippe opened
the door of the small drawing-room which leads into the reception-rooms.

In these I found all the well-remembered wreckage; the panels above
the doors, which had contained valuable pictures, bare of all but empty
frames; broken marbles, mirrors carried off. In old days I was afraid
to go up the state staircase and cross these vast, deserted rooms; so I
used to get to the Princess' rooms by a small staircase which runs
under the arch of the larger one and leads to the secret door of her
dressing-room.

My suite, consisting of a drawing-room, bedroom, and the pretty
morning-room in scarlet and gold, of which I have told you, lies in the
wing on the side of the Invalides. The house is only separated from the
boulevard by a wall, covered with creepers, and by a splendid avenue
of trees, which mingle their foliage with that of the young elms on
the sidewalk of the boulevard. But for the blue-and-gold dome of the
Invalides and its gray stone mass, you might be in a wood.

The style of decoration in these rooms, together with their situation,
indicates that they were the old show suite of the duchesses, while
the dukes must have had theirs in the wing opposite. The two suites are
decorously separated by the two main blocks, as well as by the central
one, which contained those vast, gloomy, resounding halls shown me
by Philippe, all despoiled of their splendor, as in the days of my
childhood.

Philippe grew quite confidential when he saw the surprise depicted on my
countenance. For you must know that in this home of diplomacy the very
servants have a reserved and mysterious air. He went on to tell me that
it was expected a law would soon be passed restoring to the fugitives
of the Revolution the value of their property, and that my father is
waiting to do up his house till this restitution is made, the king's
architect having estimated