led those fortunate ladies who could afford to number themselves
among his subjects with a sway he has since, I am assured, been forced
to divide among other monarchs--the only monarchs left now to a
Republic that has never denied that one divine succession through all
her revolutions. For that monarchy Paris never will sing _ca ira_; for
that principle she knows no cynicism; that wonderful juggernaut, the
Fashion, shall never rumble across channel, it seems!

I had derided myself for a sentimentalist and spinner of fine theories
when I had thought I detected a little defiance in her first
assumption of this midnight black robe, with its startling corals on
her arm and neck, and the foreign-looking comb behind her high-dressed
hair, the whole bringing out markedly that continental strain that
amused Whistler (naughty Jimmie!) and displeased Roger. But when she
appeared in it that night determined on a dinner where most of the
guests were highly distasteful to Roger, who had congratulated himself
on a quiet evening at home; when she had dragged him to it at the risk
of losing his only train and teased him shamefully all through it by
the most ridiculous flirtation with one of the worst _roues_ of Europe
(Margarita was so fundamentally honest and so thoroughly attached to
her husband that such performances could only be doubly painful to
him, since they were obviously intended maliciously) when she sent him
off before the long dinner's close without any but the most casual
_adieux_ and without the remotest intention of accompanying him, I was
uncomfortably forced to the conclusion that this long-trained, inky
dress was a veritable devil's livery, that she had put it on
deliberately and that there would be no stopping her till the mood was
off.

And now I find myself about to write a most unjustifiable thing, in
view of the possibility of these idle memories falling somehow,
sometime, somewhere, into the hands of that ubiquitous Young Person to
whom all print is free as air in these enlightened days. In America it
has been the rule, to suppress such print as could not brave this
freedom; in France, to suppress such Young Persons as could! There is
something to be said for both methods, and each has, perhaps, its
defects; the one producing more stimulating Young Persons, the other
enjoying more virile prose.

Be that as it may, I am quite aware that my duty to the youth of Anglo
Saxondom should lead me to state, sadly bu