The Allure of Chanel by Paul Morand

Author:Paul Morand [Paul Morand]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782270577
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2013-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

Madame de Chévigné died shortly before the war. For some years she had not been receiving visitors. Her door was only open to her family, to close friends, to me. If Misia came to see her, she would only have her brought in so that she could speak to her harshly, to her face.

“You wouldn’t understand that, you who know everything!”

And she would wink surreptitiously at me, click her tongue, and give me a mischievous kick under the table, without Misia realising.

“In 18—, we knew how to behave. F— loved me; or so I thought. One day, after a journey, I arrive on the arm of Monsieur de Chévigné for a grand dinner party. In the anteroom, I cast my eyes over the list of guests. I read: Comte and Comtesse de F. The fickle fellow had got married without telling me. I feel flustered … but all of a sudden I pull myself together, and I say to myself: ‘You are Laure de Chévigné, née Sade.’ (Sade! What a lovely name … Misia would sigh. What would I not give to be born Sade!)

“We’re French, we are! These foreigners, they think they know it all! Can’t stand the Russians … I was in Petersburg … I stayed with the Grand-Duchess Vladimir. People are polite over there, too polite. You’re treated well in Russia, but they don’t respect you; they give you presents with diamonds, but they use you as they would an object. And then, their wealth, I went to Tsarskoe Selo, and it wasn’t as smart as all that!”

Occasionally Auguste, the elderly servant, would come in.

“What is it now, Auguste?”

“Madame la Comtesse, it’s Madame X.”

“Could you not have said that I was unwell? I am with Mademoiselle.”

“Madame la Comtesse, I can’t lie.”

“Then why are you a servant? Servants are supposed to say no.”

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