In spite of all their engagements, Pauline and her sisters found time for an immense amount of charitable work of all sorts. They all took an active part in one way or another, and Pauline even managed to make use of the evenings she spent in society, for she collected money at the houses to which she went to help the poor during the hard winters. During that of 1788 she got a thousand cus in this way. M. de Beaune used to give her a louis every time he won at cards, which was, or he good-naturedly pretended to be, very often.
The Comtes de Provence and dArtois were married to the two daughters of the King of Sardinia, to whose eldest son the Princess Clotilde was betrothed.It is probable that she deceived herself more than she did other people, and her life in fact, between the Duke and Duchess and their children, could not have been anything but a constant course of deception.
ONE:In her Memoirs, Mme. de Genlis says that the years she spent at the Palais Royal were the most brilliant and the most unhappy of her life.
MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCEHer salon had been famous from 1750, before Lisette was born, and now, as an old woman, she came to visit the young girl of whose artistic genius she had heard enough to excite her curiosity. She arrived in the morning and expressed great admiration for the beauty and talent of her young hostess.He persevered accordingly, passed safely through the Revolution, and was a favourite court painter during the Empire and Restoration.Mme. de Genlis, finding Paris too dear, moved to Versailles where she lived for a time, during which she had the grief of losing her nephew, Csar Ducrest, a promising young officer, who was killed by an accident.
