Such is my day.
"I entreat you, my very dear mother, to, forgive me if my letter is too
long. I ask pardon also for the blotted letter, but I have had to write
two days running at my toilet, having no other time at my disposal."
In the winter the Court made merry with sleighing, skating and dancing
parties, and formal affairs in honor of foreign princes. "There is too
much etiquette here to live the family life," lamented the child to her
mother. "Altogether, the Court at Versailles is a little dull, the
formalities are so fatiguing. But I am happy, for Monsieur the Dauphin
is very polite to me and always attentive." In another letter she
recounted the triumph attending the first presentation of the opera
_Iphigenie_, by Gluck. "The Dauphin applauded everything and Gluck
showed himself very well pleased. . . . He has written me some pieces
that I sing to the harpsichord."
Several times a week, the awkward, bashful boy who was to become Louis
XVI of France pleased his light-hearted wife by taking dancing lessons
with her. Hours were spent with him in the park at Versailles, skipping
about, laughing, playing pranks like the little girl she was. Sometimes
there were charades, and plays by amateurs and professionals behind the
"closed doors" of their own rooms.
In 1774, four years after the marriage of Marie Antoinette to the
Dauphin, Louis XV was taken ill of smallpox during a sojourn at the
Little Trianon, and was removed to Versailles.
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