Show 4 A A I 1 WAS THIS THE MOST CHARMING WOMAN you can pick up almost any worn wom an a magazine and read an article about the most charming woman that ever lived one writer will se lect elect a movie actress like ingrid bergman another writer will point to the fact that the duchess of wind sor is the most charming magnetic woman imaginative writers go all the way back to cleopatra in mak ing their nominations it seems to me however that everything considered the most charming woman who ever lived haq was not a movie actress an egyptian queen or the heroine of a lar novel she was instead a mild middle aged woman who lived in pans paris around the middle of the nineteenth century her name was madame re camier and although she left be hind nothing but an exquisite legend as of a rose that had bloomed for a while in a garden and vanished men and women still praise her the secret of madame reca mier s charm was that she put her self always in the other persons person s place she was an enchanting Us tener one of her admirers said she was she rarely spoke herself but she did something far more im she contrived to make you say bright and witty things she had tremendous tact when you called at her home she smiled graciously made you feel more wel come than you d ever felt anywhere before she wasn gasn t flowery or ex trava gant about it it was the way she the said what she said rather than the words she used one of her friends the great french author sainte beuve wrote on the day after her death she would have liked to stop everything at april her heart remained at early spring what did she offer these persons that they loved her so not wealth hers was lost not position she lived in a tour four room flat then what the sheer charm and power of a perfect personality jeanne Franc francoise olse Re camler camier wa was her full name she lived in pan paris from 1777 to 1849 to this day when writers want to set up a standard of charm and personality they choose her as their model |