of the toilettes, and M---- assured me that luxury in dress is now
carried here to an extraordinary height; and to show you that I am not
so blinded by admiration for what is Spanish as not to see faults, at
least when they are pointed out to me, I will allow that French women
have a better idea of the fitness of things, and that there is an
absence of simplicity in the dress of the Spanish women which is out of
taste. I allude chiefly to those who were on foot. The rich silks and
brocades which trail along the Prado, hiding pertinaciously the
exquisitely small feet of the wearers, would be confined in Paris to the
_elegantes_ who promenade the Bois de Boulogne or the Champs-Elysees in
carriages. Here the wife and the daughter of the poorest shopkeeper
disdain chintz and calico; nothing short of silk or velvet is considered
decorous except within doors. But, having made this confession, I must
add that the general effect is charming, and as for beauty, both of face
and figure, especially the latter, surely no city in the world can show
such an amount of it."

In spite of the general tone of gayety which was pervading Madrid in
these days of the early fifties, many of the members of the older
nobility, conservative to the core, were holding somewhat aloof from the
general social life of the time. Society had become too promiscuous for
their exclusive tastes, and they were unwilling to open their drawing
rooms to the cosmopolitan multitude then thronging the capital. Details
of this aristocratic life are naturally somewhat difficult to obtain,
but this same sprightly Madame Calderon de la Barca, through her
connection with the diplomatic corps at Madrid, was able to enter this
circle in several instances, and her chatty account of a ball given by
the Countess Montijo, one of the leaders in this exclusive set, if not
one of its most exclusive members, is not lacking in interest: "A
beautiful ball was given the other night at the Countess Montijo's. She
certainly possesses the social talent more than any one I ever met with,
and, without the least apparent effort, seems to have a kind of
omnipresence in her salons, so that each one of her guests receives a
due share of attention. The principal drawing room, all white and gold,
is a noble room. The toilettes were more than usually elegant, the
jewels universal. The finest diamonds were perhaps those of the Countess
of Toreno, wife of the celebrated minister. The Countess of T