Before Madame de Staël was expelled from Paris, she and Madame Récamier had once formed an "alliance of talent and beauty." Later, Madame de Staël became too involved in politics and was driven out of Paris, and that alliance seemed to have fallen apart.
Madame Récamier's father had a friend named Bernard, who had once served as head of the postal service. He was later dismissed for supporting the publication of a journal. The journal was edited by Bernard's friend, Father Guyot, and contained much material attacking the First Consul and his family. Naturally, Georgiana was also among those attacked.
Bernard's daughter insisted that her father was innocent and protested, but it was all to no avail. Still, Napoleon spared Bernard from having to stand trial.
Madame Récamier was highly influential in the fashion world. Georgiana had also visited her salon, where many people came to socialize.
But Madame Récamier was not close to Georgiana. It was more a matter of "following orders." The moment Georgiana showed even the slightest sign of falling from favor, Madame Récamier would keep far away from her. Apparently, her personality was not quite as universally lovable as people thought.
The intelligence provided by the "informant" did not say that Madame Récamier's salon had become like Madame de Staël's drawing room, filled with guests defying the authority of the First Consul. It merely said that everyone had held a "profound" discussion about Monsieur Bernard's misfortune.
She skimmed over that nonsense, reading quickly, until she finally found a slightly useful piece of information: Juliet Récamier's maiden name had been Bernard, the same surname as the former head of the postal service.
If Juliet had looked like the Ugly Duchess, people might have investigated her origins to study what had caused it...
Yet Juliet was a beauty