taking pride in her stock and
her produce. She would invite the king and the rest of the royal family to
garden parties, where, at a table set out under a bower of honeysuckle,
she would pour out their coffee with her own hands, boasting of the
thickness of her cream, the freshness of her eggs, the ruddiness and
flavor of her strawberries, as so many proofs of her skill in managing her
establishment; and would not fear to shock her aunts by tempting one of
her sisters-in-law to a game at ball, or battledoor and shuttlecock. But
she probably enjoyed still more the power of gratifying the inhabitants of
Versailles and the neighborhood. The moment that her improvements were
completed, she opened the gardens to the public to walk in, and gave
out-of-door parties and children's dances, to which all the inhabitants of
Versailles who presented themselves in decent apparel were admitted. She
would even open the dance herself with some well-conducted boy, and
afterward stroll among the crowd, talking affably to all the company, even
to the governesses and nurses, and delighting the parents with the
interest which she exhibited in the characters, the growth, and even the
names of the children.

There were some who, startled at the unwonted sight of a sovereign so
treating her subjects as fellow-creatures, confessed a fear that such
familiarity was not without its dangers;[6] but the objects of her
condescension worshiped her for it; and for a time at least the great
majority of the nation forgot that she was Austrian. She was now nearly
twenty years of age. Her form had developed into a rare perfection of
elegance. Her features had added to the original brilliancy of her girlish
loveliness something of that higher beauty which judgment and sagacity
inspire, and which dignity renders only the more imposing; while the same
benevolence and purity beamed in every look which were remarked as her
most sterling characteristics on her first arrival in the country. And it
is not to her French or German admirers alone that we are reduced to trust
for the impression which at this time she made on all beholders. We have
seen that English gentlemen and ladies of rank were frequent visitors to
the French court; and from two of these, men of widely different
characters, talents, and turns of mind, we have a striking concurrence of
testimony as to the power of the fascination which she exerted on all who
came within the sphere of her influence.