She was at this time distractingly lovely. She was indeed no longer quite slender; but being of a good height, and her throat and arms being of an exquisite colour and form, her _embonpoint_ had only the effect of superb softness and roundness--though her movements were said to be a little stiff when she was off her guard. She had such an unwearying spirit, such a fine actress's gift for remembering the part she was playing, that I never at this period of her life remember seeing her off her guard in this matter, though I have seen her at balls and revelling suppers, and in the most awful storm at sea which it was ever my lot to witness in all my years of service. That any woman in all the long reign of his late Majesty, the longest in our English history, had a face of such intoxicating beauty I hardly believe; its shape and moulding were perfect. In particular the arching of the brows and the way her lips parted as she smiled were miracles, and such teeth I never saw both for their colour and the way they were set. And when she was smiling, with these teeth glittering like snow, and soft dimples in her lovely cheeks, and kindness rising from her eyes like the fragrant smoke of incense, she was the most graciously beautiful piece of womanhood in the wide world. She had, too, the habit of lightly laying her hand on you as she spoke, or if you were walking, slipping it a little way through your arm and taking a few paces with you. And she had a fascinating sense of delight in her own beauty, without any trace of the arrogance and spoiled child's pettishness which so frequently accompany it. Indeed, she craved to have the warm liking of all who came into contact with her. Knowing now the temptations to which she had been exposed in her bringing up, and her habit of blindly obeying merely her own instincts in the matter of right and wrong, I cannot but give her the highest credit for the constancy and exclusiveness with which she bestowed her heart. Though she was gracious and had a manner to all, she never loved--she never showed herself in love with but three men: Mr. Greville (whom I never saw--but I hear that she gave him all the best of her heart), Sir William, and the Admiral. While he was on shore now, she was courier as well as hostess to the still ailing Admiral. With that immense establishment of the British Embassy on her hands, no matter what the time of day, or what the function was that required to be attended, all he had to do was to take his place beside the smiling beauty, and find himself at the point where his duties began. She was the centre of life, the ear and tongue of royal favour at Naples.