Some years before I had been introduced to Mdlle.

Marie Anne de Bovet by Sir Charles Dilke.Mdlle.de Bovet was a writer of talent and knew English uncommonly well; but in spite of masses of fair hair and vivacious eyes she was certainly very plain.

As soon as she heard I was in Paris, she asked me to present Oscar Wilde to her.

He had no objection, and so I made a meeting between them.

When he caught sight of her, he stopped short: seeing his astonishment, she cried to him in her quick, abrupt way: "N'est-ce pas, M.Wilde, que je suis la femme la plus laide de France ?" (Come, confess, Mr.Wilde, that I am the ugliest woman in France.) Bowing low, Oscar replied with smiling courtesy: "Du monde, Madame, du monde." (In the world, madame, in the world.) No one could help laughing; the retort was irresistible.