Although Pauline was outshone by her sister-in-law at her early entry into Parisian society, she soon managed to establish her right to general admiration, and in the days when she was a young bride in Paris she evoked much envy by her public apbearances. Here she is at a dance given by one of Napoleon's friends:
For this function she had devised! a costume which, as she said, was to make her immortal. It consisted of antique raiment of white Indian muslin, decorated at the edges and corners with rich gold embroidery. A girdle of gold heid it under the breast, and the girdle was held together by a cameo. Cameos also heid the short sleeves and adorned the golden bracelets on her wrists. As headdress she wore strips of panther skin, between which golden grapes tor-ward. "No words can convey the charm of her appearance," Laurette reported decades later. "The room grew brighter as she entered. There Was such a harmony between the different parts of this delightful ensemble that her appearance was greeted with a murmur of admiration which continued in disregard of the other ladies." To enjoy her triumph to the full Paulette withdrew to the boudoir of Madame Permon, where she reclined on a wide divan which, brilliantly illuminated, did justice fo this apparttion..
This triumph was not to the taste of Madame de Contades, a beauty of the old regime, who with true feminine spite cast one glance at the new beauty and then, with every care that her words should be heard. remarked, "If I had ears like hers I would have them removed" The young bride was not sufficiently schooled in the art of social warfare and the barb was so piercing that she wept, declared herself indisposed and withdrew before midnight. But sleep sharpened her faculties and in receiving her hostess of the night before she expressed her surprise that the gentlemen should pay attention to such a hop-pole as Madame dé.. Gen-tades when other ladies who visited them were a thousand times prettier. As an example she cited Madame Chauvelin, who in reality had a snub nose, eyes blinking with myopia, and an exceedingly unswanlike neck. So Madame de Contades soon received the appropriate rebuke.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.