Refreshments are handed round
and at twelve o'clock the company break up. Mme Fournier is a lady of very
distinguished talent and always acts a principal role herself in the
dramatic performances given at her private theatricals.
I have become acquainted too with a very pleasant family, M. and Mme
Vanderberg, who are the proprietors of a large house and magnificent garden
in the Faubourg du Roule. M. Vanderberg is a man of very large fortune.[62]
He has three daughters, handsome and highly accomplished, and one son; one
of them was married to General R----, but is since divorced; the second is
married to a young colonel of Hussars, and the third is still unmarried;
but being very young, handsome, accomplished and rich, there will be no
lack of suitors whenever she is disposed to accept the connubial chain. I
have dined several times with this family. There is an excellent table. The
choicest old wines are handed about during dinner, and afterwards we
adjourn to another room to take coffee and liqueurs.
If there is no evening party, the company retire, some for the theatre,
some for other houses, where they have to pass the evening; if the family
remain at home you have the option of retiring or remaining with them, and
the evening is filled up with music or _petits jeux_.
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