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122
Recollections of
[Ch. XII.

go together in Napoleon's carriage, after dining with the emperor, as he said he wished to criticise our dresses, and then proceed from his door to the ball.

Madame Montholon very good naturedly sent her maid Josephine to arrange my hair. She combed and strained it off my face, making me look like a Chinese. It was the first time I had seen such a coiffure, and I thought I had never beheld any thing so hideous in my life, and would gladly have pulled it all down, but there was no time, and I was obliged to make my appearance before Napoleon, whose laugh I dreaded, with my eyes literally starting from my head, in consequence of the uneasy manner in which my hair had been arranged. However, to my great comfort, he did not quiz it, but said it was the only time he had ever seen it wear the appearance of any thing like neatness. But my little leno frock did not pass muster so well: he declared it was frightful, from its ex-

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