rench say, I was
"tres embarrassee de ma personne." The uncertainty of what I was to do
(for Lady Francis had been exceedingly succinct in her instructions),
and the certainty of a crowd of people staring all round me,--this, I
think, and not the overpowering sense of a royal human being before me,
was what made me nervous. Were I to go again to a Drawing-room, now that
I know my lesson, I do not think I should suffer at all from any
embarrassment. We are not asked to the fancy ball at the Palace, I am
told, because of our omission in not attending at the Birthday
Drawing-room, which, it seems, is a usual thing after a first
presentation. I should like to have seen it; it will be a fine sight. In
the mean time, as many of our acquaintances are going, we come in for a
full share of the insanity which has taken possession of men's and
women's minds about velvets, satins, brocades, etc. You enter no room
that is not literally _strewed_ with queer-looking prints of costumes;
and before you can say, "How d'ye do?" you are asked which looks best
together, blue and green, or pink and yellow; for, indeed, their
selections are often as outrageous as these would be. I never conceived
people could be so stupid at combining ideas, even upon this least
abstruse of subjects; and you would think, to hear these fine ladies
talk the inanity they do about their own clothes, now they are compelled
to think about them for themselves, that they have no natural
perceptions of even color, form, or proportion. The fact is that even
their _dressing_-brains are turned over to their French milliners and
lady's-maids. I understand Lady A---- says she will make her dress alone
(exclusive of jewels) cost L1000.

Some people say this sort of mad extravagance does good; I cannot think
it. It surely matters comparatively little that the insane luxury of the
self-indulgent feeds the bodies of so many hundred people if at the same
time the mischievous example of their folly and extravagance is
demoralizing their hearts and minds and injuring a great many more.

Touching Lady A----, she gave the address of one of her milliners to
Lady W----, who, complaining to her of the exorbitant prices of this
superlative _faiseuse_, and plaintively stating that she had charged her
fifty guineas for a simple morning dress, Lady A---- replied, "Ah, very
likely, I dare say; I don't know anything about _cheap clothes_."

I do not know where Adelaide is likely to lodge