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Lee to help her. 'And to defend her, added Miss Mohun. 'Her testimony is worth a great deal, and I am glad to know where to lay my hand upon it. And here is our first house, "Les Rochers." For Madame de Sevigne's sake, I hope it will do! But it didn't! Miss Mohun got no farther than the hall before she detected a scent of gas; and they had to betake themselves to the next vacant abode.
We recalled Madame de Sévigné's spirited description of the court and royal family setting forth upon some pleasure party, herself among them, tucked in snugly in the same carosse with her favorite, Duchesse de La Vallière, or Madame de Montespan of the many ringlets, for whom she cares nothing, these two ladies in close quarters although cordially hating each other.
Can't you stay and talk to me, and later on we might sneak out together and go somewhere?... Are you painting to-day?" "Well, no, I'm going to a museum a long way from here. I have never seen Madame de Sevigne's house." "Who is she?" "The woman who wrote the famous letters." "I am afraid I shall only bore you, because I can't talk about books."
The matter which these celebrated letters contain is multifarious; they are sketches of Madame de Sevigne's friends, Madame de Lafayette, Madame Scarron, and all the principal personages of that brilliant court, from which, however, she was excluded, in consequence of her early alliance with the Fronde, her friendship for Fouquet, and her Jansenist opinions.
She could not have had a better guide in such matters than De Vermond, who was a man of extensive information and of a very correct taste; and under his guidance and with his assistance she studied Sully's memoirs, Madame de Sévigné's letters, and any other books which he recommended to her, and which gave her an idea of the past history of the country as well as the masterpieces of the great French dramatists.
For gay and amusing letters, for 'enjouement and badinage, there are none that equal Comte Bussy's and Madame Sevigne's. They are so natural, that they seem to be the extempore conversations of two people of wit, rather, than letters which are commonly studied, though they ought not to be so. I would advise you to let that book be one in your itinerant library; it will both amuse and inform you.
These opinions remind us of Madame de Sevigne's prediction respecting the use of coffee. Fernando Cortez and his page, the gentilhombre del gran Conquistador, whose memoirs were published by Ramusio, on the contrary, highly praise chocolate, not only as an agreeable drink, though prepared cold,* but in particular as a nutritious substance.
I have received only two of yours; perhaps the third will come; that is the only comfort I desire: as for others, I seek for none." During five and twenty years Madame de Sevign~ could never become accustomed to her daughter's absence. She set out for the Rochers, near Vitry, a family estate of M. de Sevigne's. Her friend the Duke of Chaulnes was governor of Brittany.
It is as needless to apologize for devoting a whole chapter to local circumstances connected with Madame de Sevigné's life, as it would be to detail the well-known social virtues which have erected this amiable and unpretending woman into a sort of household deity in the eyes of so large a class of persons, while the Lauzuns, the Montespans, and other gay and brilliant favourites of that period, are only recollected with disgust.
She has another misfortune, which is, that she cannot read twice over those choice books which she esteems exclusively. This person says that she is insulted when she is told that she is not fond of reading: another bone to pick." Madame de Sevigne's liking for good books accompanied her to the last, and helped her to make a good end.
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