LAbbe Constantin, vol 2 | Page 9

that he should wear no livery, that he should choose the
coachmen, the grooms, and everyone connected with the stables; that
he should never have less than fifteen horses in the stables, that no
bargain should be made with the coach-builder or saddler without his
intervention, and that he should never mount the box, except early in
the morning, in plain clothes, to give lessons in driving to the ladies
and children, if necessary.
The cook took possession of his stores, and the stud-groom of his
stables. Everything else was only a question of money, and with regard
to this Mrs. Norton made full use of her extensive powers. She acted in
conformity with the instructions she had received. In the short space of

two months she performed prodigies, and that is how, when, on the
15th of April, 1880, Mr. Scott, Susie, and Bettina alighted from the
mail train from Havre, at half-past four in the afternoon, they found
Mrs. Norton at the station of St. Lazare, who said:
"Your caleche is there in the yard; behind it is a landau for the children;
and behind the landau is an omnibus for the servants. The three
carriages bear your monogram, are driven by your coachman, and
drawn by your horses. Your address is 24 Rue Murillo, and here is the
menu of your dinner to-night. You invited me two months ago; I accept,
and will even take the liberty of bringing a dozen friends with me. I
shall furnish everything, even the guests. But do not be alarmed; you
know them all; they are mutual friends, and this evening we shall be
able to judge of the merits of your cook."
The first Parisian who had the honor and pleasure of paying homage to
the beauty of Mrs. Scott and Miss Percival was a little Marmiton fifteen
years old, who stood there in his white clothes, his wicker basket on his
head, at the moment when Mrs. Scott's carriage, entangled in the
multitude of vehicles, slowly worked its way out of the station. The
little cook stopped short on the pavement, opened wide his eyes, looked
at the two sisters with amazement, and boldly cast full in their faces the
single word:
"Mazette!"
When Madame Recamier saw her first wrinkles, and first gray hairs,
she said to a friend:
"Ah! my dear, there are no more illusions left for me! From the day
when I saw that the little chimney-sweeps no longer turned round in the
street to look at me, I understood that all was over."
The opinion of the confectioners' boys is, in similar cases, of equal
value with the opinion of the little chimney-sweeps. All was not over
for Susie and Bettina; on the contrary, all was only beginning.
Five minutes later, Mrs. Scott's carriage was ascending the Boulevard

Haussmann to the slow and measured trot of a pair of admirable horses.
Paris counted two Parisians the more.
The success of Mrs. Scott and Miss Percival was immediate, decisive,
like a flash of lightning. The beauties of Paris are not classed and
catalogued like the beauties of London; they do not publish their
portraits in the illustrated papers, or allow their photographs to be sold
at the stationers. However, there is always a little staff, consisting of a
score of women, who represent the grace, and charm, and beauty of
Paris, which women, after ten or twelve years' service, pass into the
reserve, just like the old generals. Susie and Bettina immediately
became part of this little staff. It was an affair of four- and-twenty
hours--of less than four-and-twenty hours, for all passed between eight
in the morning and midnight, the day after their arrival in Paris.
Imagine a sort of little 'feerie', in three acts, of which the success
increases from tableau to tableau:
1st. A ride at ten in the morning in the Bois, with the two marvellous
grooms imported from America.
2d. A walk at six o'clock in the Allee des Acacias.
3d. An appearance at the opera at ten in the evening in Mrs. Norton's
box.
The two novelties were immediately remarked, and appreciated as they
deserved to be, by the thirty or forty persons who constitute a sort of
mysterious tribunal, and who, in the name of all Paris, pass sentence
beyond appeal. These thirty or forty persons have, from time to time,
the fancy to declare "delicious" some woman who is manifestly ugly.
That is enough; she is "delicious" from that moment.
The beauty of the two sisters was unquestionable. In the morning, it
was their grace, their elegance, their distinction that attracted universal
admiration; in the afternoon, it was declared that their walk had the
freedom and ease of two young goddesses; in the evening, there was
but one cry of