"
Other rooms prepared for the Queen faced an inner court, and here with
music, small talk and embroidery she spent contented moments, remote from
the demands of her high estate.
Usually the mistress of Versailles was wakened at eight o'clock by a lady
of the bedchamber, whose first duty it was to proffer a ponderous volume
containing samples of the dresses that were in the royal wardrobe. Marie
Antoinette marked with pins, taken from an embroidered cushion, the
costumes she wished to put on for the various events of the day--the
brocaded and hooped Court dress for the morning mass, the negligee to be
worn during leisure hours in her own living rooms, and the gown to be
donned for evening festivities. These vital matters determined, the
Queen proceeded with her bath and her breakfast of chocolate and rolls.
She was accustomed then to return to bed, and, with her tapestry-work in
hand, receive various persons attached to her service. Physicians,
reader, secretary, came to ask her wishes and do her bidding. At noon
followed the "rising," and the stately progress of the Queen and her
attendants through the Salon of Peace to the dazzling Hall of Mirrors,
where the King awaited her on his way to chapel. Often at this hour
there were admitted to the Grand Gallery of Mirrors respectful groups of
commoners, who gathered to watch the passing of the gracious Marie
Antoinette beside the husband whose uncouth gait and features were ever
in forbidding contrast to her own comely bearing.
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