ways decolletee, showed a bosom and a pair of
shoulders that were whitened and polished by the same process employed
upon her face; happily, for the sake of exhibiting her magnificent
laces, she partially veiled the charms of these chemical products. She
always wore the body of her dress stiffened with whalebone and made in
a long point and garnished with knots of ribbon, even on the point! Her
petticoats gave forth a creaking noise,--so much did the silk and the
furbelows abound.

This attire, which deserves the name of apparel (a word that before
long will be inexplicable), was, on the evening in question, of costly
brocade,--for Madame Soudry possessed over a hundred dresses, each
richer than the others, the remains of Mademoiselle Laguerre's enormous
and splendid wardrobe, made over to fit Madame Soudry in the last
fashion of the year 1808. Her blond wig, frizzed and powdered, sustained
a superb cap with knots of cherry satin ribbon matching those on her
dress. If you will kindly imagine beneath this ultra-coquettish cap the
face of a monkey of extreme ugliness, on which a flat nose, fleshless as
that of Death, is separated by a strong hairy line from a mouth filled
with false teeth, whence issue sounds like the confused clacking of
hunting-horns, you will have some difficulty in understanding why
the leading society of Soulanges (all the town, in fact) thought
this quasi-queen a beauty,--unless, indeed, you remember the succinct
statement recently made "ex professo," by one of the cleverest women
of our time, on the art of making her sex beautiful by surrounding
accessories.

As to accessories, in the first place, Madame Soudry was surrounded
by the magnificent gifts accumulated by her late mistress, which the
ex-Benedictine called "fructus belli." Then she made the most of her
ugliness by exaggerating it, and by assuming that indescribable air
and manner which belongs only to Parisian women, the secret of which is
known even to the most vulgar among them,--who are always more or less
mimics. She laced tight, wore an enormous bustle, also diamond earrings,
and her fingers were covered with rings. At the top of her corsage,
between two mounds of flesh well plastered with pearl-white, shone a
beetle made of topaz with a diamond head, the gift of dear mistress,--a
jewel renowned throughout the department. Like the late dear mistress,
she wore short sleeves and bare arms, and flirted an ivory fan, painted
by Boucher