itself, it
is especially noticed that tea[1] was now introduced, and began to share
with coffee the privileges of affording sober refreshment to those who
aspired in their different ways to give the tone to French society.

A less innocent novelty was a passion for horse-racing, in which the Comte
d'Artois and the Duc de Chartres set the example of indulging,
establishing a race-course in the Bois de Boulogne. The count had but
little difficulty in persuading the queen to attend it, and she soon
showed so decided a fancy for the sport, and became so regular a visitor
of it, that a small stand was built for her, which in subsequent years
provoked some unfavorable comments, when the princess obtained her leave
to give luncheon in it to some of their racing friends, who were not in
all instances of a character deserving to be brought into a royal
presence.

She pursued this, as she pursued every other amusement which she took up,
with great keenness for a while, so much so as to provoke earnest
remonstrances from her mother, whose letters were commonly dictated by
Mercy's reports and suggestions. Nor, if she felt uneasiness, did Maria
Teresa spare her daughter, or take any great care to moderate her language
of reproof. At times her tone is so severe as to excite a feeling of
wonder at the submissiveness with which her letters were received. No
express eulogy of her admirers could give so great an idea of Marie
Antoinette's amiability, good-nature, genuine modesty, and sincere
affection for her mother, as the ingenuousness with which she admits
errors, or the temper with which she urges excuses. To that venerated
parent she is just as patient of admonition, now that she is seated on a
throne, as she could have been in her schoolroom at Schoenbrunn; and, in
reply to the scoldings (no milder word can do justice to the earnest
vehemence of the letters which at this time she received from Vienna), she
pleads not only that an appetite for amusement is natural to her age, but
that she enters into none of which the king does not fully approve, and
none which are ever allowed to interfere with her giving him full
enjoyment of her society whenever he has leisure or inclination for it.

But her replies to her mother hint also at the continuance of the old
causes for her restlessness, and for her eager pursuit of new diversions
to distract her thoughts. Her natural desire for children of her own was
greatly increased when, on the 1