ho assemble there have
only sufficient wealth to live and not enough to spoil them; they cannot
give way to ambition, but follow, through necessity, the counsel of
Cyneas, devoting their youth to a military employment, and returning home
to grow old in peace; an arrangement over which honor and reason equally
preside. The women are handsome, yet do not stand in need of beauty,
since they possess all those qualifications which enhance its value and
even supply the want of it. It is remarkable, that being obliged by my
profession to see a number of young girls, I do not recollect one at
Chambery but what was charming: it will be said I was disposed to find
them so, and perhaps there maybe some truth in the surmise. I cannot
remember my young scholars without pleasure. Why, in naming the most
amiable, cannot I recall them and myself also to that happy age in which
our moments, pleasing as innocent, were passed with such happiness
together? The first was Mademoiselle de Mallarede, my neighbor, and
sister to a pupil of Monsieur Gaime. She was a fine clear brunette,
lively and graceful, without giddiness; thin as girls of that age usually
are; but her bright eyes, fine shape, and easy air, rendered her
sufficiently pleasing with that degree of plumpness which would have
given a heightening to her charms. I went there of mornings, when she
was usually in her dishabille, her hair carelessly turned up, and, on my
arrival, ornamented with a flower, which was taken off at my departure
for her hair to be dressed. There is nothing I fear so much as a pretty
woman in an elegant dishabille; I should dread them a hundred times less
in full dress. Mademoiselle de Menthon, whom I attended in the
afternoon, was ever so. She made an equally pleasing, but quite
different impression on me. Her hair was flaxen, her person delicate,
she was very timid and extremely fair, had a clear voice, capable of just
modulation, but which she had not courage to employ to its full extent.
She had the mark of a scald on her bosom, which a scanty piece of blue
chenille did not entirely cover, this scar sometimes drew my attention,
though not absolutely on its own account. Mademoiselle des Challes,
another of my neighbors, was a woman grown, tall, well-formed, jolly,
very pleasing though not a beauty, and might be quoted for her
gracefulness, equal temper, and good humor. Her sister, Madam de Charly,
the handsomest woman of Chambery, did not learn