However, by
some sort of instinct, we rose too (perhaps to see what was going on),
just as the princes passed. Princess Marguerite looked charming, dressed
in white, with her splendid pearls and beautiful fair hair.
When it was decided that we should ask the Orleans princes to our party,
I thought I would go to see the Duc Decazes, the foreign minister, a
charming man and charming colleague, to get some precise information
about my part of the entertainment. He couldn't think what I wanted when
I invaded his cabinet, and was much amused when I stated my case.
"There is nothing unusual in receiving the princes at a ministry. You
must do as you have always done."
"But that is just the question, I have _never done_. I have never in my
life exchanged a word with a royal personage."
"It is not possible!"
"It is absolutely true; I have never lived anywhere where there was a
court."
When he saw that I was in earnest he was as nice as possible, told me
_exactly_ what I wanted to know,--that I need not say "Altesse royale"
every time I spoke, merely occasionally, as they all like it,--that I
must speak in the third person, "Madame veut-elle," "Monseigneur veut-il
me permettre," etc.
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