and general civility, no one who has not arrived at my age, and lived
in Paris, can form any idea of the insolence and hauteur of the higher
classes of society in 1815. The glance of unutterable disdain which
the painted old duchesse of the Restoration cast upon the youthful belles
of the Chausse d'Antin, or the handsome widows of Napoleon's army of
heroes, defies description. Although often responded to by a sarcastic
sneer at the antediluvian charms of the emigree, yet the look of contempt
and disgust often sank deep into the victim's heart, leaving there germs
which showed themselves fifteen years later in the revolution of 1830.
In those days, this privileged class was surrounded by a charmed circle,
which no one could by any means break through. Neither personal attractions
nor mental qualifications formed a passport into that exclusive society;
to enter which the small nobility of the provinces, or the nouveau riche,
sighed in vain. It would have been easier for a young Guardsman to
make his way into the Convent des Oiseaux - the fashionable convent
in Paris - than for any of these parvenus to force an entrance into
the Faubourg St. Germain.

One of the first acts which followed the Restoration of the Bourbons
was the grant of a pecuniary indemnity, amounting to a milliard, or
forty millions sterling, to be distributed amongst the emigres who had
lost fortunes or estates by their devotion to the royal family. They
had now, therefore, the means of receiving their friends, political
partisans, and foreigners, with more than usual splendour; and it must
be admitted that those who were thought worthy to be received were treated
like spoiled children, and petted and flattered to their heart's content.
In their own houses they were really des grands seigneurs, and quite
incapable of treating their invited guests with the insolence that became
the fashion among the Jewish parvenus during the reign of the "citizen
king." It is one thing to disdain those whom one does not think worthy