The ball lasted just two hours.

The monarch did not dance, but for the first two rounds of the minuet even the queen does not turn her back to him.

Yet her behavior is as easy as divine." Such was a French court ball on days of most special ceremony, a somewhat solemn affair, which required graciousness such as that of Marie Antoinette to make admission to every one a very enviable privilege; even though its stiffness had been in some degree relieved by a new regulation of the queen, that the invitations, which had hitherto been confined to matrons, should be extended to unmarried girls.

Scarcely any change produced greater consternation among the admirers of old customs.

The dowagers searched all the registers of those who had been admitted to the court balls since the beginning of the century to fortify their objections.