right to devote herself to his last
days. To her friends she said that if she married him, he would miss the
pleasure and variety of his daily visits.

Old, blind, broken in health and spirit, but retaining always the charm
which had given her the empire over so many hearts, she followed him in
a few months.

Mme. Recamier represents better than any woman of her time the peculiar
talents that distinguished the leaders of some of the most famous
salons. She had tact, grace, intelligence, appreciation, and the gift of
inspiring others. The cleverest men and women of the age were to be met
in her drawing room. One found there genius, beauty, esprit, elegance,
courtesy, and the brilliant conversation which is the Gallic heritage.
But not even her surpassing fascination added to all these attractions
could revive the old power of the salon. Her coterie was charming, as a
choice circle gathered about a beautiful, refined, accomplished woman,
and illuminated by the wit and intelligence of thoughtful men, will
always be; but its influence was limited and largely personal, and it
has left no perceptible traces. Nor has it had any noted successor. It
is no longer coteries presided over by clever women that guide the age
and mold its tastes or its political destinies. The old conditions have
ceased to exist, and the prestige of the salon is gone.

The causes that led to its decline have been already more or less
indicated. Among them, the decay of aristocratic institutions played
only a small part. The salons were au fond democratic in the sense that
all forms of distinction were recognized so far as they were amenable to
the laws of taste, which form the ultimate tribunal of social fitness in
France. But it cannot be denied that the code of etiquette which ruled
them had its foundation in the traditions of the noblesse. The genteel
manners, the absence of egotism and self-assertion, as of disturbing
passions, the fine and uniform courtesy which is the poetry of life, are
the product of ease and assured conditions. It is struggle that destroys
harmony and repose, whatever stronger qualities it may develop, and
the greater mingling of classes which inevitably resulted in this took
something from the exquisite flavor of the old society. The increase of
wealth, too, created new standards that were fatal to a life in which
the resources of wit, learning, and education in its highest sense were
the chief attractions. The greater per