A frenchman de l’ancien régime, hearing me express my surprise at the costume of the ladies, assured me, that excepting the foreigners, there was not one woman de bonne compagnie in the room. This term of “bonne compagnie,” is so often used, and so seldom explained, that I really do not know, whether he meant that there was not a woman of the old court, or that there was not a virtuous female present. If he intended the former, it only proved, that these balls were not frequented by the noblesse; if the latter, he was much severer in his remark than I had been. I only complained of the ladies being indecent; he asserted that they were profligate. At any rate, the one fault leads so rapidly to the other, that it was difficult to make a mistake.
The room was well lighted; the music excellent, and the ball, being formed of all the different classes of society, highly entertaining to a foreigner. There were a great many english present; most of the ambassadors, and many other distinguished characters.
I returned home about three in the morning.
Adieu.
LETTER XI.
New year’s day.—The Palais royal.
Paris, January the 1st, 1802 (11 nivôse.)
MY DEAR SIR,