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However, Mme. de Sévigné's letters leave us wholly in the dark as to when this intimacy began. Sainte-Beuve holds that it was about 1665, and makes a strong argument for his view of the matter. D'Haussonville believes that this remarkable union was the result of long acquaintance and slowly ripening friendship, the acquaintance having begun in the years following Mme. de La Fayette's marriage, that is, between 1655 and 1665. He sums up the matter as follows: "Une chose est certaine: c'est que La Rochefoucauld s'est emparé peu
Boissier in his Vie de Mme. de Sévigné says that when, in 1671, the correspondence between mother and daughter begins, "Mme. de La Fayette has but recently united herself with the Duc de La Rochefoucauld in that close intimacy which gave the world so much to talk about."
This unfortunate princess had passed her exiled youth in the convent of Chaillot; and Mme. de La Fayette, going thither on frequent visits to a kinswoman, was drawn into intimacy with the young girl, who must even then have given evidence of those charms which later made her brief reign at Court as brilliant as it was unhappy.
He had always painted "from life," and the difficulties incident to gaining an entrance into the intimacy of even dethroned monarchs were almost insurmountable. The novelist's acquaintances were appealed to, from house-furnishers to diplomats.
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