Chapter 14 - Page 2

de l'oreille.~"

"It is the only one your highness will ever lower," I replied.

M. de Joinville is of somewhat queer disposition. Now
he is joyous to the point of folly, anon gloomy as a
hypochondriac. He is silent for three days at a time, or his bursts
of laughter are heard in the very attics of the Tuileries.
When he is on a voyage he rises at four o'clock in the
morning, wakes everybody up and performs his duties as
a sailor conscientiously. It is as though he were to win his
epaulettes afterwards.

He loves France and feels all that touches her. This
explains his fits of moodiness. Since he cannot talk as he
wants to, he keeps his thoughts to himself, and this sours
him, He has spoken more than once, however, and
bravely. He was not listened to and he was not heeded.
"They needn't talk about me," he said to me one day, "it
is they who are deaf!"

Unlike the late Duke d'Orleans, he has no princely
coquettishness, which is such a victorious grace, and has no
desire to appear agreeable. He rarely seeks to please
individuals. He loves the nation, the country, his profession,
the sea. His manner is frank, he has a taste for noisy
pleasures, a fine appearance, a handsome face, with a kind heart,
and a few feats of arms to his credit that have been
exaggerated; he is popular.

M. de Nemours is just the contrary. At court they say:
"There is something unlucky about the Duke de Nemours."

M. de Montpensier has the good sense to love, to esteem
and to honour profoundly the Duchess d'Orleans.

The other day there was a masked and costumed ball,
but only for the family and the intimate court circle--the
princesses and ladies of honour. M. de Joinville
appeared all in rags, in complete Chicard costume. He was
extravagantly gay and danced a thousand unheard-of
dances. These capers, prohibited elsewhere, rendered the
Queen thoughtful. "Wherever did he learn all this?"
she asked, and added: "What naughty dances! Fie!"
Then she murmured: "How graceful he is!"

Mme. de Joinville was dressed as a bargee and affected
the manner of a street gamin. She likes to go to those
places that the court detests the most, *the theatres and
concerts of the boulevards*.

The other day she greatly shocked Mme. de Hall, the
wife of an admiral, who is a Protestant and Puritan, by
asking her: "Madame, have you seen the "Closerie des
Genêts"?"

The Prince de Joinville had imagined a nuisance that
exasperated the Queen. He procured an old barrel organ
somewhere, and would enter her apartments playing it and
singing in a hoarse, grating voice. The Queen