An eighteenth century marquise; a study of Émilie Du Châtelet and her times

Preface

THE eighteenth century was an artificial age, and none of the famous women of the day was more essentially a product of its artificiality than the Marquise du Chatelet. Her mind was deeply tinged with the philosophical and metaphysical ideas which accompanied the approach of the mental unrest preceding the Revolution. She was thinker and scientist, precieuse and pedant, but none the less a coquette — in short, a woman of contradictions. She was so strikingly original, so marked in her individuality, that she was worthy to be judged on her own merits, and to stand alone in the eyes of posterity, yet historians have persisted in regarding her merely as a satellite of Voltaire. This she would assuredly have resented. She would rather have been well hated than treated with indifference, and would have preferred to be written of with contempt rather than to be ignored. But this she would never have confessed. She desired to be loved for herself alone, and when told that certain persons refused to do her justice, she replied that if this were indeed the case she wished to ignore it. Jealousy was at the root of much of the dislike which her women friends lavished upon her, and occasionally expressed openly. It is significant that, according to Sainte-Beuve, the most bitter and most cruelly satirical

6 Preface

passages ever written in French appear in her pen-portrait by Mme du DefFand.

It is impossible to judge Mme du Chatelet apart from Voltaire, so closely were their lives intertwined, but it is quite practicable to discuss her from a broader standpoint than that of her influence on his work, and to give due consideration to her part in the almost masculine friendship which united them. Their liaison forms a narrative of love and intellectual companionship, of constancy and betrayal, which lasted fifteen years. In her infatuation for Saint-Lambert, she was, on the other hand, ultra-womanly. It was a wild, emotional episode, not often equalled in its improbable and incredible abandon^ and it closed with her death after a year and a half. These contrasting passions bring out strongly the extreme powers of reason and feeling with which she was gifted. Her ardour for the diversions of the salons and the courts, for masquerades, excursions, theatricals, ■petits soupers, versifying and gambling was incidental to her character. Her real tastes were not for gaiety, nor yet even for renown. She had two absorbing interests — work and love.

Frank Hamel.

London, 1910,

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME

The Dauphines of France

By FRANK HAMEL Author of "Famous French Salons," etc.

OUTLOOK.—" Mr. Hamel has worked with much discretion, aided by a light hand, a fascinating manner, and an entire absence of pretentiousness. We have not met within the same compass so faithful and complete a revelation of the life of the Royalties and Noblesse. . . . The portraits in this entertaining volume are instructive and admirably reproduced. The frontispiece is charming enough to be removed and framed on its own merits as a picture. On the whole, a book suitable for presentation by uncles and guardians."

DAILY TELEGRAPH.— '"'mr. Hamel has the right touch, and treats history in a mood of gay vivacity. The reader will find the various studies always animated, well informed, and excellently phrased. Certainly these stories make romantic reading, and Mr. Hamel handles his material with dexterity and force. In his glowing pages he seizes every opportunity for lively and impressive description."

BOOKMAN. — " A book which, while remaining of manageable size, tells all that is to be told about no less than fifteen persons, must have been remarkably difficult to write. Mr. Hamel, nevertheless, has accomplished his task with real success. His style of writing is spirited and enjoyable, his facts are put tersely and vividly, and his accuracy is unquestionable. In fact, his manner is as fascinating as his matter. . . . The book is one which nobody should miss."

LONDON: STANLEY PAUL & CO., I Clifford's Inn, E.C.

Chapter I Page

PARENTAGE AND YOUTH . . . . * H

"^CHAPTER II

^^CHAPTER III THE MATHEMATICIANS AND THE CAFES . .. 69

"^CHAPTER IV THE SALONS AND A SUPPER PARTY . . . IO5

;hapter V

A PARADISE ON EARTH ..... I32

CHAPTER VI

8 Contents

CHAPTER VII

PAGE

A LIBEL AND A LAWSUIT ..... I97

CHAPTER VIII SCEAUX AND ANET

CHAPTER IX THE COURT OF LUNEVILLE ..... 29I

CHAPTER X LOVE AND SAINT-LAMBERT ..... 329

INDEX 375

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE MARQUISE DU CHATELET FrOtlttSptece

After Nattier.

PAGB

THE DUG DE RICHELIEU 3I

VOLTAIRE AS A YOUNG MAN 39

After a painting by Largilliire.

MOREAU DE MAUPERTUIS . 75

Engraved from a painting by Tourniires.

MADAME DACIER 93

HOUDART DE LAMOTTE ......... 97

MADAME DU DEFFAND . 121

FRANCESCO ALGAROTTI 139

After a pastel by Listard.

VOLTAIRE'S " DIVINE EMILIE " I7I

After the painting by Marianne Loir.

MADAME DE GRAFFIGNY ......... 183

VOLTAIRE 221

After an engraving by Alix.

EMILIE GABRIELLE DU CHATELET 239 v^

From an old engraving.

THE DUCHESSE DU MAINE 249

MADAME DE STAAL 273

STANISLAS LECZINSKI, KING OF POLAND 3OI

THE MARQUISE DE BOUFFLERS . . . . . . • '3^^

THE MARQUIS DE SAINT-LAMBERT 331

CHIEF AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

Algarotti : Works.

Barbier : Journal.

Beaumelle, Angliviel de la : Vie de Maupertuis.

Beauvau : Souvenirs de la Marechale Princesse de Beauvau.

BoYE, Pierre : La Cour de Luneviile en 1748 et 1749.

CoLLE : Journal.

CoLOMBEY, E. : Ruelles, Salons et Cabarets.

Crequy, Madame de : Souvenirs.

Desnoiresterres : Voltaire et la Societe au dix-huitieme Siecle.

Du ChAtelet, Emilie : Works and Letters.

Du Deffand, Madame : Letters.

Faur : Vie privee du Richelieu.

GoNCOURT, De : La Femme au XVIII^ Siecle.

„ „ L' Amour au XVIII^ Siecle.

Graffigny, Madame de : Letters.

Renault, President : Memoires.

LoNGCHAMP : Memoires.

LuYNES, Due DE : Journal.

Marie, M. : Histoire des Sciences Mathematiques. Marmontel : Memoires.

Maugras, Gaston : La Cour de Luneviile au XVIII^ Siecle. Orleans, Elisabeth Charlotte de : Letters. Sainte-Beuve : Causeries du Lundi.

Saint-Lambert : Works, etc.

Saint-Simon : Memoires.

Staal, Madame de : Memoires.

Voisenon : Works.

Voltaire : Works and Letters.

Etc., Etc.

CHAPTER I

" \ X /"HAT admirable and unique people you both * '^ are ! " wrote Frederick the Great to Mme du Chatelet and Voltaire ; ** the wonder of all who know you increases day by day." And judging from the complex natures of the lively marquise and her friend the philosopher, he might have filled a volume with their characteristics without coming very much nearer to the truth.

A study of circumstances and a knowledge of the extremes which made them distinctive are essential to unlock this problem of character. The first quarter of the eighteenth century in France was dull, decaying, and stagnant ; the second brought forth a burst of impetuous licence ; in the third, licence having become systematic, produced a reaction in favour of a new philosophy which aimed at amelioration of the social order ; and in the fourth quarter this was superseded by activity of the most drastic kind, so explosive in its course that decay, licence, philosophy, and all the known conditions disappeared before it, and a new day was ushered in. The first half of the century alone concerns Mme du ji

Chatelet, the Revolution and the period of immediate preparation which filled the latter half being an inevitable and terrible conclusion. The period of her lifetime was equally important psychologically, and more subtle than that which succeeded it. Profligacy rioted side by side with culture, the pursuit of science did not interfere with the indulgence of personal greed, individual opinion was awake amidst a sloth of oppression and corruption, and this spirit of contradiction resulted in mental and moral unrest, which is reflected in the character of the divine Emilie. She embodied in herself the definite intellectual aims which were springing up in the midst of social instabilities. Her personal idiosyncrasies were the outcome of hereditary tendencies battling with new and untried conditions.

Born in 1706, she had reached the most impressionable age when the fresh ideas and livelier manners of the Regency began to make themselves felt. She was not slow to imbibe them, and her position was one in which she had every opportunity to do so efi^ectively. She was the daughter of the Baron de Breteuil, a frequenter of Courts, and an odd character who belonged to the later period of Louis Quatorze, and was inflated to an almost ridiculous degree with the pomposity of etiquette and ceremonial, in the atmosphere of which he had spent many years of his life. The Le Tonnelier de Breteuil family was an old one, and had numerous branches. Many of its members held appointments as magistrates, controllers of finance, and in the Church and the army. The family had settled in Paris in the middle of the sixteenth century, and one of its most celebrated scions was Emilie' s grandfather, Louis le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Seigneur de Boissette, Mons and

Raville, who held a number of public posts, the more important being those of Controller-General of Finances and Councillor of State. His wife, Chretienne Le Court, presented him with a large family of sons, of whom Louis- Nicolas, Baron de Preuilly, was the seventh and youngest. Born on September 14, 1648, at Montpellier, while his father was Intendant of Languedoc, he was early destined for a career at court, and soon won for himself a reputation as a gallant man about town. His first love-affair was with one of the queen's femmes de chamhre^ a certain Mile de Perigny, who was not satisfied with a single string to her bow, and flirted with the Marquis d'Estrades and the Comte de Marsin at the same time as the Baron de Breteuil. One day the second called on her, to find the first and third already present. To his surprise she was dressed all in black and wore anything but a cheerful air. When the other two had taken their departure, the Comte de Marsin begged her to tell him why she had gone into mourning. Without a moment's hesitation she laughingly explained the position in verse :

••Je prends mon habit de deuil Et suis malade Quand je vois entrer Breteuil Avec Estrades."

A far more romantic episode was that of Louis-Nicolas with the fascinating Anne Bellinzani, who fell madly in love with him when she met him at a ball in 1 67 1 . She wrote a passionate story of this affair under the title of the " Histoire des Amours de Cleante et de Belise," and described him at the age of twenty-one as possessing a charm of manner and appearance with which in later years he was never credited. Her parents and relatives regarded her attitude with stern disapproval, but she ignored their prejudices until by chance she discovered that her lover was secretly married to another. Then she entered a convent, to emerge five years later on the eve of a forced marriage with President Ferrand. For some time afterwards she hoped to renew the early romance, and kept up a correspondence with Louis-Nicolas, but his heart had long since ceased to respond to her calls upon it. In 1675 his wife, Marie Anne le F^vre de Caumartin, who was also a distant cousin, bore him a daughter, and retired to a convent, where she died four years later. On her death-bed, the marriage, which for some mysterious reason had been kept secret, was acknowledged, and he claimed the little girl as his legitimate child. Anne-Louise, as she was called, died at the age of twenty-two, and was buried in the family sepulchre.

In 1677 Louis-Nicolas obtained the post of Reader to the King, and after holding this for some time he sold it and was sent in January 1688 as envoy extraordinary to the Princes of Italy. In 1699 he contracted a second marriage, and this wooing contained a flavour of mystery, like the first. He had been paying court for some time to the wife of his uncle, Claude le Tonnelier de Breteuil, who before her marriage had been a Mile de Froulay. She invited her sister to come and stay with her, and the Baron de Breteuil soon found that his affections were newly engaged, and that he was obliged to play a double game. His aunt only discovered the truth when he announced his approaching marriage with her sister. The children of the marriage were Rene- Alexandre, born April 7, 1698 ; Charles-Auguste, Elisabeth-Theodore, and Emilie-Gabrielle, December 17,1 706.

Emilie's maternal grandmother was Angelique de

Beaudean, a fille d'honneur to Queen Marie-Therese. She was married in 1656 to the Comte de Froulay, Grand-Markhal des Logis. The latter's functions consisted in making the arrangements for the housing of the king, the officers, and the court, in the various palaces and when travelling. Ang61ique was the sister of Mme de Navailles and daughter to that Mme de Neuillant who was responsible for the training of Fran9oise d'Aubigne, better known as Mme de Maintenon.

Two years after his second marriage the Baron de Breteuil was appointed Introducer of Ambassadors at the French Court in the place of Bonneuil, who had died recently and to whose widow he had to pay 40,000 crowns. The post was worth more than twice that sum, and carried with it certain prerogatives and privileges which were by no means to be despised. His main duties were to conduct to the king, to the queen, and to all the princes and princesses of the blood, the kings, sovereign princes and princesses, legates, cardinals, ambassadors, envoys, and other dignitaries coming from foreign countries. Moreover he had to introduce to the queen and all the princesses of the blood, the female relatives that these foreigners brought with them. No wonder that our friend the Baron had to be a good courtier ! In such a post, tact, amiability and gallantry were absolute essentials. He knew how to make himself liked, and was a favourite with the young Due de Bourgogne, who chose him to carry the candle on the night his marriage was consummated, this privilege of carrying the candle being much sought after by courtiers. The Baron revelled in the " world of small things " that* devolved upon him incidentally in the course of his duties. He left voluminous memoirs, which form a remarkable record of ceremonial at court, from events of real historical and political significance down to the smallest tittle-tattle, concerning the Duchess of So-and-so's breach of etiquette, the contempt of the Marquise somebody-else for a present bestowed upon her by the King, what happened at the wedding of some unimportant nobility, and what was the consequence of a moment's forgetfulness on the part of some dignitary who ought to have known better. La Bruy^re and Saint-Simon bore witness to the Baron's less noble qualities, and even to the petty spirit he occasionally showed. His daughter, who was never petty, was not exempt from occasional ignoble traits, in spite of her breadth of view and intellectual superiority, and there are some sides of her character which were not unlike her father's.

Under the thin disguise of Celsus, La Bruyere described the Baron de Breteuil none too kindly. " Celsus is of mean condition," he wrote, " yet those of the best quality entertain him. He has no learning, but he has relations with the learned. He has little merit himself, yet he is acquainted with those who have a great deal. He has no abilities, but he has a tongue that serves to make him understood and feet to carry him from one place to another. He is a man born to run to and fro on errands, to listen to propositions and report them, to make himself appear important, to overdo his commission and be relieved of it, to reconcile people who quarrel at their first interview, to succeed in one affair and fail in a thousand, to attribute to himself all the honour of success and to cast the blame of failure on others. He knows all the news and gossip of the town. He does nothing himself, but tells and repeats what others are doing. He

IS a newsmonger. He even knows family secrets, and he IS concerned in the most intimate mysteries. He will tell you why such an one went into exile, and why another was recalled."

Saint-Simon's account was that the Baron was not at all wantmg in intellect-which is far more likely to be the truth-but that he allowed his predilection for the Court, mmisters, men of office and of fashion to carry him away ; that indeed it amounted to a mania, and that he was not above using his influence for pecuniary considerations by promising his protection to those in search of appointments-wherein he did not differ from his feJows, for at that time office-finding was a lucrative pursuit. He blamed him also for tuft-hunting, accused him of being a bore, a boaster, and a chatterbox, as well as a butt for ridicule and chaff generally. To substantiate his first accusation he quotes the case of the Pontchartrains mto whose society he had forced himself through the influence of Caumartin, who was distantly related to his first wife. In this connection he tells a story about him similar to one which was told by La Bruy^re of Le Notre the famous gardener. One day when the Baron was dining at M. de Pontchartrain's house amon^ a number of guests, he began to speak rather bumptiously. Mme de Pontchartrain, who was perhaps a little annoyed, wished to take him down a peg or two She said to him that, though he appeared to know everything, she felt sure he did not know who composed the Paternoster. Thereupon Breteuil began to laugh and joke His hostess pressed the point, and always returned to the same subject. He defended himself as well as he could, and then rose from table and left the room. Caumartin, who was aware of his embarrassment, followed him, and whispered " Moses." The Baron, who had grown a little confused, thought this was all right, and when coffee was served he brought up the subject of the Pater again triumphantly. This time Mme de Pontchartrain had no difficulty in getting her way, and Breteuil, after reproaching her a number of times for the doubt she showed in him and the shame he felt at being obhged to answer a question so trivial, said that every one knew Moses was the author of the Pater. There was a loud burst of laughter. The poor Baron, utterly confounded, did not know where to hide his diminished head. Every one repeated his remark until it was worn threadbare. He quarrelled with Caumartin, and the Pater was held up against him for a long while.

Concerning the early years of Emilie^s life, spent under the guardianship of such a father, there is very little reliable information.

There is a garbled account in the Souvenirs of Mme de Crequy, but it is difficult to sift truth from fiction, and the authorship of these memoirs is uncertain. The Marquise de Crequy was a Mile de Froulay and first cousin to Emilie, so her evidence, had she given any, would have been invaluable. As it is, the contemporary anecdotes which exist in her supposed Souvenirs form an inaccurate but possible picture of the reality. Mile de Froulay, so the story runs, was taken by her father to the Hotel de Breteuil, close to the gardens of the Tuileries, where Emilie lived. She described the house as very beautiful and herself as overjoyed to go and live there. There were eight or nine rooms on each floor of the house, and all were decorated and gilded with great luxury. The Marquise de Breteuil-Sainte-Croix occupied the ground-floor, two or three of the rooms being reserved for her mother, the Marechale de Thomond. These two had fine apartments in the chateau of Saint-Germain, and they regarded those in the Hotel de Breteuil as a mere pied-a-terre in Paris. Mme de Breteuil-Preuilly, Mile de Froulay's aunt, lived in the first story with her husband. His library overflowed into three rooms. The second story belonged to the Dowager Countess de Breteuil-Charmeaux, another aunt, the eldest sister of the Baronne, who refused to share her apartments with any one. The third floor was occupied by the Commandant de Breteuil, who frequently had the Bishop of Rennes to stay with him. The Baronne's four children occupied the fourth floor, and Mile de Froulay's cousin Emilie had to give up her room to the new arrival. It overlooked the Tuileries Gardens. She was moved into three little rooms looking out on to a blind alley, and for this, said Mile de Froulay, " she never forgave me."

Mile de Froulay was thus transplanted into the very bosom of the Breteuil family, and felt as though she were in a thicket of thorns, so carefully had she been instructed that etiquette and rank were the gods of the household. She never dared to mention commoners without looking round, as one would naturally do if speaking of humpbacks or people with red hair, to be sure there were none present.

M. de Breteuil was an old limb of the law, said his niece none too respectfully, and his chief topic of conversation was his father, the Controller-General, whose name he never mentioned without the title Monseigneur. His own titles made quite a recitation, and he repeated them on every possible occasion. He was Baron de Breteuil and de Preuilly, Premier Baron de Touraine and Secretary to the King, Minister Plenipotentiary and

Reader to His Majesty, besides Councillor and Introducer of Ambassadors. His wife, Gabrielle-Anne de Froulay, was renowned for her beauty. Her face was amongst those that strike the eye of the beholder, that once seen are never forgotten, and of a type that no one expects to see twice in a lifetime. Her complexion was of a marvellous freshness. She had fair, rather colourless hair, dark eyebrows, grey eyes, piercing like an eagle's, a sweet and lively, but above all imposing air. She was naturally serious, and if she smiled it was in a condescending manner, or tenderly when she looked at her children, who were all very charming except, according to the supposed Mile de Froulay's account, the awkward Emilie. About her she had not a good word to say.

Emilie was a giantess in height and broad in proportion. She had marvellous strength and was quite exceptionally clumsy. She had huge feet and appalling hands. Her skin was as rough as a nutmeg grater, and altogether she was as ugly as a grenadier guard. Having deprived her of even a shred of presentable appearance, the prejudiced memoir-writer proceeded to deprive her of the slightest intellectual capacity. She was dull, muddled, and preoccupied, whilst her pedantry made her insupportable ; she gained all that she knew of astronomy from the crumbs of knowledge which fell from her mother's lips. And this was the woman of whom Voltaire spoke as a beauty and a savante in after-years. How could he reconcile it to his conscience? " Ah, Madame," was the poet's reply when the leading question was put to him, *' she would have trampled on me if I had not done so, and in the end she might have strangled me. You know little about her if you do not know that." " Well, Monsieur de Voltaire, that may be so," was the reply, " but all I am willing to admit about Mme du Chatelet is that she was cleverer than you."

The children were taught their manners very carefully by their mother, who made them read books of advice as to the best way of eating boiled eggs, of serving glasses of liqueur, and of breaking their bread carefully at table. They were taught to avoid the habits of the middle classes as they would the pestilence. The household was carried on in the most lavish manner, and though there were but few members, the servants numbered as many as forty-four. Fontenelle, Dangeau, and Saint- Simon were said to be frequent visitors at the house.

This account of the Breteuil family may or may not represent the actuality of Emilie's early surroundings, but there is at least no reason to doubt that her upbringing was in most particulars similar to that of other girls of her class, with the exception perhaps that her tastes led her to profit by the classical education her father provided for her, and that from the first she was encouraged to indulge in original thought.

The birth of a daughter at this period was almost invariably a disappointment to the parents. A girl could add nothing to the family glory, nay, her dowry would before long deplete its coffers. She could not transmit her father's name nor win fresh glories on the battlefield or in diplomatic circles. Her arrival left her father indifferent and her mother a little regretful. The absence of the infant at nurse softened the disappointment, and by the time she returned to be placed in charge of a governess, she was welcomed in a kindly manner, as a pretty little doll to be dressed up and regarded as a plaything. Her home was a forcinghouse of artificiality. Her youth was but a foretaste of her later years. She aped her grown-up sister in her habits, her manners and her dress. A little girl of the eighteenth century had her hair done high and padded, crowned with feathers, or a ribbon-laden bonnet trimmed with flowers. She wore an embroidered muslin overdress, covering a wide-spreading blue or pink silk underskirt. She loved gewgaws, and adorned herself with ornaments of gold and silver, coral and pearl. Her playthings, consisting especially of dolls, were as much bedizened as herself, possessed hard red cheeks and gaudy clothes, and were so large as to be inconvenient to carry. Yet no good eighteenth-century mother of dolls would have dreamt of walking out in the park with her governess unaccompanied by her waxen baby. As for the little Emilie-Gabrielle, her love of fine clothes and gewgaws was deep-seated from the first, and grew with her growth, but if she ever played with dolls, it was surely to bang their heads on the floor when she was angry, and then, remorseful because she thought them pained, to hug and caress them with all the force of her passionate nature.

As regards education, it has already been said that Emilie was far better equipped in useful knowledge than others of her class. "Her father, the Baron de Breteuil, had taught her Latin," wrote Voltaire in his Memoirs, " which she understood as perfectly as Mme Dacier. She knew by rote the most beautiful passages in * Horace,' ' Virgil,' and * Lucretius,' and all the philosophical works of Cicero were familiar to her. Her inclinations were more strongly bent towards mathematics and metaphysics than any other studies. Seldom has there been united in the same person so much justness of discernment and elegance of taste with so ardent a desire for information." He also declared that in her earliest youth she had read good authors in various languages, that he himself had seen several portions of a translation of the ^neid, which showed a wonderful knowledge of the meaning of the original ; that, having studied Itahan and Enghsh, Tasso and Milton became as familiar to her as Virgil ; and that she made some progress in Spanish. She was also an accomplished musician.

In having had this classical groundwork Emilie was indeed fortunate. The ordinary governess was usually concerned in making her pupil acquainted with showy and gUttering accomplishments rather than with solid learning, and with a superficial veneer of manners, etiquette, and pretty behaviour, than with rules for upright conduct and straightforward honesty. Emilie profited but little by the inevitable lessons in deportment, the turning out of toes, the elaborate curtsy, or the dignity to be attained from a head well-balanced on her shoulders. She was awkward to the last day of her life, but her delight in romping and her natural vivacity as a child were probably not nearly as well curbed as in the case of the ordinary pert misses.

A child at that time was taken to stiff bah (Tenfants, driving there in her carriage, gorgeously attired, her hair decked with feathers, her person with jewellery, a coquettish bouquet fixed on the left shoulder, scented, powdered, rouged, and artificial to her finger-tips. Her relations with her mother were probably limited to a visit once a day for a few minutes to the semi-lighted, rose-tinted room where the latter lay resting after her fatigues of the previous evening, receiving casual privileged visitors of either sex. The little daughter was encouraged to caress her mother's outstretched hand, delicate and white and glittering with rings, to say *' How are you, chere Maman ? " to obey the answer, "Kiss me, ma petite, and then run away and enjoy yourself as much as you can," with an added remark, addressed sotto voce to the visitor, « Isn't she a darling ? I can hardly bear my lovely child out of my sight."

Apart from its purely devotional aspect, the convent was an institution of considerable influence in the life ot a woman in the eighteenth century. Should there be no dot forthcoming because the sons of the house needed all the money, there was the refuge ; it served too as an asylum or a prison in the case of injudicious loveaffairs or unfortunate marriages ; it was a sanctuary for those who repented of a wild youth, or whose beauty had been utterly disfigured by the prevalent scourge of smallpox. Marriage or a convent : there was no other alternative for a girl of good family at that period. She was sent there for educational purposes, and perhaps because the mother did not wish for the presence of a growing girl, blossoming into fresh beauty which might contrast with her own jaded charms to their disadvantage and thus dim the lustre of her popularity. Probably she was brought out again at the age of seventeen or eighteen, to take up the worldly life and contract a marriage of convenience Marriage at that time was another term for emancipation • ' It presented itself as a period of bustle, of a sudden accession of importance, of the sensation of being grown-up, of endless interviews with dressmakers, milliners and jewellers, of family conclaves and receptions of friends at which there was usually present a certain man who was to be looked at from afar and with an accompaniment of becoming blushes, and who somehow was a necessary though not the most interesting part of the affair. He represented rank, luxury, enjoyment, coquetry, the opera, a display of jewels, and all the delights of freedom till then denied her.