``_Beau cousin_,'' she said, laughing, ``none of
these do I remember personally; but you must
know there has been wonderfully little change on
my natural temper from youth to age. From which
it follows, cousin, that being even now something
too young in spirit for the years which Time has
marked me in his calendar, I was, when a girl, a
little too old for those of my own standing, and as
much inclined at that period to keep the society of
elder persons, as I am now disposed to admit the
company of gay young fellows of fifty or sixty
like yourself, rather than collect about me all the
octogenarians. Now, although I do not actually
come from Elfland, and therefore cannot boast
any personal knowledge of the great personages
you enquire about, yet I have seen and heard
those who knew them well, and who have given
me as distinct an account of them as I could give
you myself of the Empress Queen, or Frederick
of Prussia; and I will frankly add,'' said she,
laughing and offering her _bonbonni
re_, ``that I
have heard so much of the years which immediately
succeeded the Revolution, that I sometimes am
apt to confuse the vivid descriptions fixed on my
memory by the frequent and animated recitation
of others, for things which I myself have actually
witnessed.
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