ecame, in return for the service I had done him, my good friend. The
consideration shown to me by the Duc de Lenoncourt set the tone of
that which I met with in society. To have it said, "The king takes an
interest in the young man; that young man has a future, the king likes
him," would have served me in place of talents; and it now gave to the
kindly welcome accorded to youth a certain respect that is only given to
power. In the salon of the Duchesse de Lenoncourt and also at the house
of my sister who had just married the Marquis de Listomere, son of the
old lady in the Ile St. Louis, I gradually came to know the influential
personages of the Faubourg St. Germain.

Henriette herself put me at the heart of the circle then called
"le Petit Chateau" by the help of her great-aunt, the Princesse de
Blamont-Chauvry, to whom she wrote so warmly in my behalf that the
princess immediately sent for me. I cultivated her and contrived to
please her, and she became, not my protectress but a friend, in whose
kindness there was something maternal. The old lady took pains to make
me intimate with her daughter Madame d'Espard, with the Duchesse de
Langeais, the Vicomtesse de Beauseant, and the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse,
women who held the sceptre of fashion, and who were all the more
gracious to me because I made no pretensions and was always ready to be
useful and agreeable to them. My brother Charles, far from avoiding me,
now began to lean upon me; but my rapid success roused a secret jealousy
in his mind which in after years caused me great vexation. My father
and mother, surprised by a triumph so unexpected, felt their vanity
flattered, and received me at last as a son. But their feeling was too
artificial, I might say false, to let their present treatment have much
influence upon a sore heart. Affectations stained with selfishness win
little sympathy; the heart abhors calculations and profits of all kinds.

I wrote regularly to Henriette, who answered by two letters a month.
Her spirit hovered over me, her thoughts traversed space and made the
atmosphere around me pure. No woman could captivate me. The king noticed
my reserve, and as, in this respect, he belonged to the school of Louis
XV., he called me, in jest, Mademoiselle de Vandenesse; but my conduct
pleased him. I am convinced that the habit of patience I acquired in my
childhood and practised at Clochegourde had much to do in my winning the
favor of the king, who was alwa