pertained to Madame de Sevigne, vanquished my prudence.

Would that with the possession of these articles, often used by her, I
could also inherit the matchless grace with which her pen could invest
every subject it touched! But, alas! it is easier to acquire the
beautiful _bijouterie_, rendered still more valuable by having belonged
to celebrated people, than the talent that gained their celebrity; and
so I must be content with inhaling _esprit de rose_ from the _flacon_
of Madame de Sevigne, without aspiring to any portion of the _esprit_
for which she was so distinguished.

I am now rich in the possession of objects once belonging to remarkable
women, and I am not a little content with my acquisitions. I can boast
the gold and enamelled pincushion of Madame de Maintenon, heart-shaped,
and stuck as full of pins as the hearts of the French Protestants were
with thorns by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; to which she is
said to have so greatly contributed by her counsel to her infatuated
lover, Louis the Fourteenth. I can indulge in a pinch of snuff from the
_tabatiere_ of the Marquise de Rambouillet, hold my court-plaster in
the _boite a mouches_ of Ninon de l'Enclos, and cut ribands with the
scissors of Madame de Deffand.

This desire of obtaining objects that have belonged to celebrated
people may be, and often is, considered puerile; but confess to the
weakness, and the contemplation of the little memorials I have named
awakens recollections in my mind fraught with interest.

I can fancy Madame de Sevigne, who was as amiable as she was clever,
and whose tenderness towards her daughter is demonstrated so naturally
and touchingly in the letters she addressed to her, holding the
_flacon_ now mine to the nostrils of Madame de Grignan, in whose health
she was always so much more interested than in her own.

I can see in my mind's eye the precise and demure Madame de Maintenon
taking a pin from the very pincushion now before me, to prevent the
opening of her kerchief, and so conceal even her throat from the prying
eyes of the aged voluptuary, whose passions the wily prude is said to
have excited by a concealment of a portion of her person that had, in
all probability, ceased to possess charms enough to produce this
effect, if revealed.

This extreme reserve on the part of the mature coquette evinced a
profound knowledge of mankind, and, above all, of him on whom she
practised her arts. The profuse display of t