ABSTRACT
A WEEK after Vansittart’s election, the Princesse Marchesi, his aunt, arrived in Paris. Previously, it has been stated that she was once known as la bell Americaine in he American colony at Rome. She showed signs of being belle still, but was also usée, and shrivelled. She painted thickly, in a loud carmine; her hair should have been grey or white, but was brown. In her pre-occupation with herself, she did not stop to remember that girlhood is more than a dye, that youth is not a confection of poudre de riz.
