elf is totally unconscious of the nature and tendency of these
disclosures. Upon the publication of her book, these indiscretions
excited the displeasure of Madame Recamier's warm personal friends. One
of them, Madame Moehl, by birth an Englishwoman, undertook her defence.
This lady corrects a few slight inaccuracies of the "Souvenirs," and
since she cannot controvert its more important facts, she attempts to
explain them. Her sketch[A] of Madame Recamier is pleasant, from its
personal recollections, but far inferior to one by Sainte-Beuve,[B]
which is eminently significant. Neither, as sources of information, can
supply the place of the more voluminous and explicit "Souvenirs." It is
a little singular that this work has not been translated into English,
for, in spite of its lack of method, its diffuseness and
disproportionate developments, it is very attractive and interesting. It
is also highly valuable for its large collection of letters from
distinguished people. In the sketch we propose to make of Madame
Recamier's life, we shall rely mainly upon it for our facts, giving in
connection our own view of her character and career.

The beauty which first won celebrity for Madame Recamier was hers by
inheritance. Her father was a remarkably handsome man, but a person of
narrow capacity, who owed his advancement in life solely to the
exertions of his more capable wife. Madame Bernard was a beautiful
blonde. She was lively and _spirituelle_, coquettish and designing.
Through her influence with Calonne, minister under Louis XVI., Monsieur
Bernard was made _Receveur des Finances_. Upon this appointment, in
1784, they came to Paris, leaving their only child, Juliette, then seven
years old, at Lyons, in the care of an aunt, though she was soon
afterward placed in a convent, where she remained three years. Monsieur
and Madame Bernard's style of living in Paris was both elegant and
generous. Their house became the resort of the Lyonnese, and also of
literary men,--the latter being especially courted by Madame Bernard.
But, though seemingly given up to a life of gayety and pleasure, she did
not neglect her own interests. Her cleverness was of the Becky-Sharp
order. She knew how to turn the admiration she excited to her own
advantage. Having a faculty for business, she engaged in successful
speculations and amassed a fortune, which she carried safely through the
Reign of Terror. This is the more remarkable as Monsieur Bernard was a