The things we do!

Spies were put upon her, and to some people she would tell anything. M.
le Duc, on paying his annual visit to august exiles at Goritz, was very
badly received: Madame la Dauphine gave him a sermon. He had an awful
quarrel with Madame la Duchesse on returning to Paris. He provoked
Monsieur le Comte Tiercelin, le beau Tiercelin, an officer of ordonnance
of the Duke of Orleans, into a duel, a propos of a cup of coffee in a
salon; he actually wounded the beau Tiercelin--he sixty-five years of
age! his nephew, M. de Florac, was loud in praise of his kinsman's
bravery.
That pretty figure and complexion which still appear so captivating in M.
Dubufe's portrait of Madame la Duchesse d'Ivry, have long existed--it
must be owned only in paint. "Je la prefere a l'huile," the Vicomte de
Florac said of his cousin. "She should get her blushes from Monsieur
Dubufe--those of her present furnishers are not near so natural."
Sometimes the Duchess appeared with these postiches roses, sometimes of a
mortal paleness.


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