The Restoration was the beginning of a new era in the life of Madame Recamier, one even more brilliant and animated, if not so thoughtlessly gay as that of her youth.  Her husband had, in a measure, retrieved his fallen fortunes.  She was in possession of her mother’s property, able to have a box at the Opera, and to keep her carriage, which was a necessity, as she never walked in the street.  Her exile had made her more famous, while her joy at being restored to Paris and her friends lent another charm to the seduction of her manners.  Her association with the Montmorencys, who were in high favor with the new court, increased her political influence.  She held nightly receptions after the Opera, and her salon was neutral ground, the resort of persons of all parties.  Paris was full of foreigners of distinction, who were curious to know a person of so much celebrity, and they swelled the ranks of her admirers.  Among them was the Duke of Wellington, who, if Madame Recamier’s vanity did not mislead her, was willing and anxious to wear her chains.  But she never forgave his boastful speech after the Battle of Waterloo.  Remembering her personal dislike of the Emperor, and forgetting that she was a Frenchwoman, he said to her, on his return to Paris, “Je l’ai bien battu.”  The next time he called he was not admitted.  The Duke complained to Madame de Stael, and when he next met Madame Recamier in society treated her with coldness, and devoted himself to a young English lady.  They rarely met afterward, though the Duke came once to the Abbaye-aux-Bois.

Madame Recamier had at this time a much more earnest admirer in Benjamin Constant.  As common friends of Madame de Stael, they had been acquainted for years, and had played together in private theatricals at Coppet.  Still it was not until 1814, when Madame Recamier had an interview with him in regard to the affairs of the King and Queen of Naples, that the relations between them assumed a serious aspect.  He left her at the end of this interview violently enamored.  According to Madame Lenormant, Benjamin Constant had not the slightest encouragement to justify his madness, but it is clear from other testimony that Madame Recamier was not free from blame in respect to him.  Sainte-Beuve hints that the subject is unpleasant, and summarily dismisses it; and Madame Moehl, ever ready to defend Madame Recamier, acknowledges that in this case she was to blame, and that Madame Recamier thought so herself, and wished Constant’s letters to be published after her death, in order to justify him.  She adds, that it was a mistake not to publish them, as their suppression has given occasion for surmises utterly false.  There is nothing in the “Souvenirs” to explain either the vague hints of Sainte-Beuve or the obscure allusions of Madame Moehl; and the biographical sketches of Constant throw no light upon the subject:  they are chiefly narratives of his political career.