The Festival of Cardinal Bernis

And this day of the festival had finally come. With what joyful
impatience, with what anxious desire, had Natalie looked forward to
it--how had she importuned her friend, Count Paulo, with questions
about Cardinal Bernis, about the people she would meet there, about the
manners and usages with which she would have to conform!

"I am anxious and fearful," said she, with amiable modesty; "they will
find occasion to laugh at me, and you will be compelled to blush for me,
Paulo. But you must tell these wise men and great ladies that it is my
very first appearance in society, and that they must have consideration
for the awkwardness and ineptitude of a poor child who knows nothing of
the world, its forms, or its laws."

"For you no excuse will be necessary," responded Paulo, pressing the
delicate tips of her fingers to his lips. "Only be quite yourself,
perfectly true and open, inoffensive and cheerful! Forget that you are
in an assemblage; imagine yourself to be in our garden, under the trees
and among the flowers, and speak to people as you speak to your trees
and flowers."

"But will the people give me as true and cordial answers as my trees and
flowers?" asked Natalie, thoughtfully.

"They will say to you more beautiful and more flattering things," said
Paulo, smiling. "But now, Natalie, it is time to be thinking of your
toilet. See, the sun is already sinking behind the pines, and the
sky begins to redden! The time to go will soon arrive, and your first
triumph awaits you!"