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Updated: June 9, 2025
"Mais, oui," said the priest, with a melancholy smile. "C'est L'Isle-Adam, chez ma mere. Vous etes tres savante, ma fille." He patted her yellow turban, calling, "Venez donc, mes garcons! Il y a ici une veritable clairvoyante!" Marie was clever at fortune-telling, indulging in a light irony that amused the crowd.
She was rather a perfect type of that phenomenon before which the British and Continental world stands in mingled delight and exasperation the American unmarried young woman, the creature of extraordinary beauty and still more extraordinary poise, the virgin with the bearing and savoir-faire of a woman of the world, the fresh-cheeked girl with the calm mind of a savante and the cool judgment, in regard to men and things, of an ambassador.
It was surprising and gratifying to meet with a girl who, without being a femme savante, was yet capable of understanding the difference between the Extreme Left and the Left Center, and who took a real interest in what was passing in the world. But Erica's greatest friend was a certain Fraulein Sonnenthal, the German governess.
She was called the idole of the Temple, and her taste for letters gave her also the title of Minerve savante. She wrote a tragedy which was said to be good, though she would never let it go out of her hands, and has been immortalized by Rousseau, with whom she corresponded for sixteen years.
From this it resulted that Hadidjé, Nazli, and Zouhra at last took umbrage at the success of Kondjé-Gul, who was wrong in trying to outstrip them. "Kondjé-Gul," they proclaimed, "wishes to act the savante. Kondjé-Gul gives herself the airs of a legitimate Sultana." I must confess that the said little coquette was only too careful to impress them with her successes, of which she was rather proud.
There are some verses, written on the "Immortelle Emilie" of Voltaire, in which her employments, as a savante and a woman of the world, are thus contrasted: "Tout lui plait, tout convient a son vaste genie, Les livres, les bijoux, les compas, les pompons, Les vers, les diamans, les beribis, l'optique, L'algebre, les soupers, le Latin, les jupons, L'opera, les proces, le bal, et la physique."
He stretched himself on the grass beside her, so that their elbows touched, and they went on talking. "I greatly fear, my dear, that your griefs are not rational. It gives you pain to think of me. Why so?" "Oh, because of things that I should find it hard to explain to you; I am not a savante. You have taught me much, however, and I have learned more myself, being with you.
Mlle. de Scudéry was mistress of the art of conversation, speaking without affectation and equally well on all affairs, serious, light, or gallant; she objected, however, to being called a savante, and she was far from resembling the false précieuses to whom she was likened by her enemies. The occupations of her salon were somewhat different from those of the salon of Mme. de Rambouillet.
Don't imagine, however, that I do not wish woman to be elegant, to dance or to sing; but I should like to see as much care devoted to her mind as to her body, and between being ignorant and savante I should like to see a road taken which would prevent annoyance from an impertinent sufficiency or from a tiresome stupidity.
Between two men of the calibre of these combatants, there occurs a phenomenon very like that which takes place among the lower classes, during the terrible tussle called "the savante," which is fought with the feet, as the name implies. Victory depends on a false movement, on some error of the calculation, rapid as lightning, which must be made and followed almost instinctively.
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