instead of a clever, humble woman, a roaring politician in
petticoats, I finished the audience, leaving her as little
satisfied as myself with the interview."

Perhaps something of this kind may have influenced Napoleon in banishing
her from the Empire.

Necker himself idolized his daughter, and was naturally very proud of
her youthful triumphs, while she in turn made him her one hero among
men. Throughout life her devotion to him continued, and she wrote of him
as one might write of a god. She frequently lamented that he had been
her father and not one of her own generation, that there might have been
a man of her time worthy of the love which she could have lavished upon
him. The fervor of this devotion, although it seems unnatural, belonged
to her intensely impulsive temperament, and in her case we must make
some allowance for the excesses of her passionate expressions of
affection. Although she talked much and in the grandest manner of love,
even when young and unmarried,--which is a very indelicate thing to do
in the eyes of the French,--she did not appear to have any youthful
romance of a serious sort. She had a great reputation as a wit and a
genius, but few admirers who could be classed as lovers. Many men were
her friends, and she was much sought after; but she was far from
beautiful, which goes a great way in matters of the heart, and many
disliked the manner in which she trampled upon the conventionalities,
while doubtless many others objected to her strong-mindedness and the
aggressiveness of her opinions.

She made a marriage _de convenance_ at the age of twenty, apparently
without much thought of love upon either side, and entered upon her new
career with all the confidence which characterized her. Baron de Stael
was a man of good character and noble birth, an _attache_ of the Swedish
Embassy, and, as she had money enough for both, the match was regarded
favorably by her friends. Although the Baron was a handsome man and of
pleasing address, one, it seems, who might have touched a maiden's
heart, Mademoiselle Necker, it is said, never made even a pretence of
love, but took the whole affair as a matter of business. It was
necessary that she should be married,--it is only thus that French women
achieve their independence,--and this man would do as well as another;
that seemed to be all there was of this remarkable occurrence.
Remarkable in our eyes, but of the usual sort in the eyes of the F