mistress, in the box
of a dancer or in the atelier of a fine modiste; therefore, in that
respect, that century differed little from the present one. Trade
depended largely upon foreign patronage. Fortunes were made by the
modistes, who were the great artists of the day and who set the
fashion; but the hairdresser and shoemaker, also, were artists, as was
seen, at least in name, and were as impertinent as prosperous.

An interesting illustration of the change of fashion is the following
anecdote: In 1714, at a supper of the king, at Versailles, two English
women wore low headdress, causing a scandal which came near costing
them their dismissal. The king happened to mention that if French
women were reasonable, they would not dress otherwise. The word was
spread, and the next day, at the king's mass the ladies all wore their
hair like the English women, regardless of the laughter of the women
who, being absent the previous evening, had their hair dressed high.
The compliment of the king as he was leaving mass, to the ladies with
the low headdress, caused a complete change in the mode.

It now remains but to illustrate these various classes by types--by
women who have become famous. The Duchesse de Boufflers, Marechale de
Luxembourg, was the woman who most completely typified the spirit and
tone of the eighteenth-century _classique_ in everything that belonged
to the ancient regime which passed away with the society of 1789.
She was the daughter of the Duc de Villeroy, and married the Duc de
Boufflers in 1721; after the death of the latter in 1747, and after
having been the mistress of M. de Luxembourg for several years, she
married him in 1750. Her youth was like that of most women of the
social world. A _savante_ in intrigues at court, present at all
suppers, bouts, and pleasure trips as lady-of-the-palace to the queen,
intriguing constantly, holding her own by her sharp wit, in a society
of _roues et elegants enerves_ she soon became a leader. Mme. du
Deffand left a striking portrait of her:

"Mme. la Duchesse de Boufflers is beautiful without having the air
of suspecting it. Her physiognomy is keen and piquant, her expression
reveals all the emotions of her soul--she does not have to say
what she thinks, one guesses it. Her gestures are so natural and so
perfectly in accord with what she says, that it is difficult not to be
led to think and feel as she does. She dominates wherever she is, and
she always makes the i