I wore the white silk and my pink tulle hat.  The Marquis and the Vicomte both flew across when we arrived, and the Vicomte got to me first, as Godmamma detained the Marquis; and this is where Frenchmen shine, for although he told me afterwards that he wanted to murder her, he stood with a beautiful grin on his face all the time.  The Vicomte at once began to assure me I had promised him the cotillon, but I would not say; and as he could only get words in edgeways, with Victorine listening all the time, it made it rather difficult for him.  Then the Comte and Rene, his little boy, came round with a silver basket full of buttonholes and little cards with names, and by the kind of flower we got we were to know which table we were to sit at, as they were to be decorated with the same.

[Sidenote:  Les Jeunes Filles]

Of course the Baronne had arranged for the Vicomte to take me in; and our table was pink and white carnations.  Presently the whole company had arrived, and we started—­a huge train, two and two, arm-in-arm—­for the pavilion.  It was pretty; all the trees hung with electric lights and Chinese lanterns, and the pavilion itself a fairyland of flowers.  There were about twelve tables, three of different coloured carnations for the “jeunes filles,” and the rest with roses for the married people.  Godmamma thought it most imprudent separating them like that, and would hardly let Victorine sit down so far away from her until she saw the daughter of the Princesse d’Hauterine at the same table.  Victorine went in with another officer from Versailles, in the same regiment of Chasseurs as the Vicomte; he was like a small black monkey.  The Marquis sat with the Comtesse at her table, and Godmamma and the other bores had a table with the old Baron, etc.  The Baronne had quite a young man next her.  I expect she could not do with the chaperons and the old gentlemen.

Most of the girls at our table were either ill-at-ease or excited at the unusual pleasure of being without their mothers, and at first no one talked much.  The French country people are almost as frumpy as the English, only in a different way, but many of the guests were very smart, and of course had come from Paris.

The Vicomte did say such a lot of agreeable things to me, and the others were so occupied with their one chance of talking to a young man that they did not listen as much as usual.  He said he had never spent such an agitated night as the one at Vernon.  So I said No, the fleas were horrid.  He said he had not meant them; he meant that the sight of my beautiful hair hanging down had caused him “une grande emotion” and “reves delicieux.”