She was lodged with the servants, and
enjoyed the servant's privilege of seeing every thing and sparing
nothing. Royalty was never put in the focus of eyes so critical. Her
comments upon this visit are very brief. She expresses her detestation
of what she saw, saying, "It gives me the feeling of injustice, and
obliges me every moment to contemplate absurdity."
The studies and experiences which have been described bring us to her
fifteenth year. She was then a beautiful woman. In her memoirs she
declines to state how she looked when a child, saying that she knows a
better time for such a sketch. In describing herself at fifteen, she
says: "I was five feet four inches tall; my leg was shapely; my hips
high and prominent; my chest broad and nobly decorated; my shoulders
flat; ... my face had nothing striking in it except a great deal of
color, and much softness and expression; my mouth is a little too
wide--you may see prettier every day--but you will see none with a smile
more tender and engaging; my eyes are not very large; the color of the
iris is hazel; my hair is dark brown; my nose gave me some uneasiness; I
thought it a little too flat at the end.... It is only since my beauty
has faded that I have known what it has been in its bloom. I was then
unconscious of its value, which was probably augmented by my ignorance."
That she understated her personal charms, the concurrent admiration of
contemporary men and women fully attests.
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