stead. She cares
only for one person, her sister. To her Jeanne de la Cour unfolded her
philosophy of life. While pretending to love men, she is going to make
them suffer. They are to be her playthings, she knows how to snare them:
"All is dust and lies. So much the worse for the men who get in my way.
Men are mere stepping-stones to me. As soon as they begin to fail or are
played out, I put them scornfully aside. Society is a vast chess-board,
men the pawns, some white, some black; I move them as I please, and
break them when they bore me."

The early years of Jeanne de la Cour's career as a Phryne were hardly
more successful than her attempts at literature, acting and journalism.
True to her philosophy, she had driven one lover, a German, to suicide,
and brought another to his death by over-doses of cantharides. On
learning of the death of the first, she reflected patriotically,
"One German the less in Paris!" That of the second elicited the
matter-of-fact comment, "It was bound to happen; he had no moderation."
A third admirer, who died in a hospital, was dismissed as "a fool who,
in spite of all, still respects women." But, in ruining her lovers, she
had ruined her own health. In 1865 she was compelled to enter a private
asylum. There she is described as "dark in complexion, with dark
expressive eyes, very pale, and of a nervous temperament, agreeable, and
pretty." She was suffering at the time of her admission from hysterical
seizures, accompanied by insane exaltation, convulsions and loss of
speech. In speaking of her humble parents she said, "I don't know such
people"; her manner was bombastic, and she was fond of posing as a fine
lady.

After a few months Jeanne de la Cour was discharged from the asylum as
cured, and on the advice of her doctors went to Vittel.

There she assumed the rank of Baroness and recommenced her career, but
this time in a more reasonable and businesslike manner. Her comments,
written to her sister, on her fellow guests at the hotel are caustic.
She mocks at some respectable married women who are trying to convert
her to Catholicism. To others who refuse her recognition, she makes
herself so mischievous and objectionable that in self-defence they are
frightened into acknowledging her. Admirers among men she has many,
ex-ministers, prefects. It was at Vittel that occurred the incident
of the wounded pigeon. There had been some pigeon-shooting. One of the
wounded birds flew into the room