Since those “precious” days when the habitués of the Hôtel Rambouillet first raised social intercourse¹ to the level of a fine art, the morals and manners, the amusements and intrigues² of great French ladies have interested the world and influenced the ways of civilized³ nations.  Thanks to Memoirs⁴ and Maxims⁵, we are able to reconstruct the life of a seventeenth or eighteenth century noblewoman as completely as German archeologists have rebuilt the temple of the Wingless Victory on the Acropolis from surrounding débris.  
Interest in French society has, however, diminished during this century, ceasing almost entirely⁶ with the Second Empire, when foreign women gave the tone to a parvenu⁷ court from which the older aristocracy held aloof⁸ in disgust behind the closed gates of their “hôtels” and historic châteaux.
 
With the exception of Balzac, few writers have drawn⁹ authentic¹⁰ pictures of nineteenth-century noblewomen in France; and his vivid portrayals¹¹ are more the creations of genius than correct descriptions of a caste.
 
During the last fifty years French aristocrats¹² have ceased to be factors even in matters social, the sceptre they once held having passed into alien hands, the daughters of Albion to a great extent replacing their French rivals in influencing the ways of the “world,”—a change, be it remarked in passing, that has not improved the tone of society or contributed to the spread of good manners.
 
People like the French nobles, engaged in sulking and attempting to overthrow¹⁴ or boycott¹⁵ each succeeding régime, must naturally lose their influence.  They have held aloof so long—fearing to compromise themselves by any advances to the powers that be, and restrained by countless¹⁶ traditions from taking an active part in either the social or political strife—that little by little they have been passed by and ignored; which is a pity, for amid the ruin of many hopes and ambitions they have remained true to their caste and handed down from generation to generation the secret of that gracious urbanity and tact¹⁷ which distinguished¹⁸ the Gallic noblewoman in the last century from the rest of her kind and made her so deft¹⁹ in the difficult art of pleasing—and being pleased.
 
Within the last few years there have, however, been signs of a change.  Young members of historic houses show an amusing inclination²⁰ to escape from their austere²¹ surroundings and resume the place their grandparents abdicated²².  If it is impossible to rule as formerly²³, they at any rate intend to get some fun out of existence.
 
This joyous²⁴ movement to the front is being made by the young matrons enlisted²⁵ under the “Seven little duchesses’” banner.  Oddly enough, a baker’s half-dozen of ducal coronets are worn at this moment, in France, by small and sprightly²⁶ women, who have shaken the dust of centuries from those ornaments²⁷ and sport them with a decidedly modern air!
 
It is the members of this clique²⁸ who, in Paris during the spring, at their châteaux in the summer and autumn, and on the Riviera after Christmas, lead the amusements and strike the key for the modern French world.
 
No one of these light-hearted ladies takes any particular precedence over the others.  All are young, and some are wonderfully nice to look at.  The Duchesse d’Uzès is, perhaps, the handsomest, good looks being an inheritance from her mother, the beautiful and wayward Duchesse de Chaulme.
 
There is a vivid grace about the daughter, an intense vitality²⁹ that suggests some beautiful being of the forest.  As she moves and speaks one almost expects to hear the quick breath coming and going through her quivering nostrils³⁰, and see foam³¹ on her full lips.  Her mother’s tragic³² death has thrown a glamor³³ of romance around the daughter’s life that heightens the witchery of her beauty.
 
Next in good looks comes an American, the Duchesse de la Rochefoucauld, although marriage (which, as de Maupassant remarked, is rarely becoming) has not been propitious³⁴ to that gentle lady.  By rights she should have been mentioned first, as her husband outranks, not only all the men of his age, but also his cousin, the old Duc de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, to whom, however, a sort of brevet rank is accorded on account of his years, his wealth, and the high rank of his two wives.  It might almost be asserted that our fair compatriot wears the oldest coronet in France.  She certainly is mistress of three of the finest châteaux in that country, among which is Miromail, where the family live, and Liancourt, a superb Renaissance³⁵ structure, a delight to the artist’s soul.
 
The young Duchesse de Brissac runs her two comrades close as regards looks.  Brissac is the son of Mme. de Trédern, whom Newporters will remember two years ago, when she enjoyed some weeks of our summer season.  Their château was built by the Brissac of Henri IV.’s time and is one of the few that escaped uninjured through the Revolution, its vast stone corridors and massive oak ceilings, its moat and battlements, standing³⁶ to-day unimpaired amid a group of châteaux including Chaumont, Rochecotte, Azay-le-Rideau, Ussé, Chenonceau, within “dining” distance of each other, that form a centre of gayety next in importance to Paris and Cannes.  In the autumn these spacious³⁷ castles are filled with joyous bands and their ample stables with horses.  A couple of years ago, when the king of Portugal and his suite³⁸ were entertained at Chaumont for a week of stag-hunting, over three hundred people, servants, and guests, slept under its roof, and two hundred horses were housed in its stables.
 
The Duc de Luynes and his wife, who was Mlle. de Crussol (daughter of the brilliant Duchesse d’Uzès of Boulanger fame), live at Dampierre, another interesting pile filled with rare pictures, bric-à-brac, and statuary, first among which is Jean Goujon’s life-sized statue (in silver) of Louis XIII., presented by that monarch³⁹ to his favorite, the founder⁴⁰ of the house.  This gem⁴¹ of the Renaissance stands in an octagonal chamber⁴² hung in dark velvet⁴³, unique among statues.  It has been shown but once in public, at the Loan Exhibition in 1872, when the patriotic⁴⁴ nobility lent their treasures to collect a fund for the Alsace-Lorraine exiles.
 
The Duchesse de Noailles, née Mlle. de Luynes, is another of this coterie⁴⁵ and one of the few French noblewomen who has travelled.  Many Americans will remember the visit she mad............