untry breeding I
could have seen nothing of court manners, or French fashions, but that
that was no reason for my laughing at them. Of course I tried never to
smile again in company. This visit to Carlsruhe took place in '89, just
when every one was full of the events taking place at Paris; and yet at
Carlsruhe French fashions were more talked of than French politics.
Madame Rupprecht, especially, thought a great deal of all French
people. And this again was quite different to us at home. Fritz could
hardly bear the name of a Frenchman; and it had nearly been an obstacle
to my visit to Sophie that her mother preferred being called Madame to
her proper title of Frau.

One night I was sitting next to Sophie, and longing for the time when
we might have supper and go home, so as to be able to speak together, a
thing forbidden by Madame Rupprecht's rules of etiquette, which
strictly prohibited any but the most necessary conversation passing
between members of the same family when in society. I was sitting, I
say, scarcely keeping back my inclination to yawn, when two gentlemen
came in, one of whom was evidently a stranger to the whole party, from
the formal manner in which the host led him up, and presented him to
the hostess. I thought I had never seen any one so handsome or so
elegant. His hair was powdered, of course, but one could see from his
complexion that it was fair in its natural state. His features were as
delicate as a girl's, and set off by two little 'mouches,' as we called
patches in those days, one at the left corner of his mouth, the other
prolonging, as it were, the right eye. His dress was blue and silver. I
was so lost in admiration of this beautiful young man, that I was as
much surprised as if the angel Gabriel had spoken to me, when the lady
of the house brought him forward to present him to me. She called him
Monsieur de la Tourelle, and he began to speak to me in French; but
though I understood him perfectly, I dared not trust myself to reply to
him in that language. Then he tried German, speaking it with a kind of
soft lisp that I thought charming. But, before the end of the evening,
I became a little tired of the affected softness and effeminacy of his
manners, and the exaggerated compliments he paid me, which had the
effect of making all the company turn round and look at me. Madame
Rupprecht was, however, pleased with the precise thing that displeased
me. She liked either Sophie or me to create a