those we love, as they are tedious and disagreeable from
others. If they are displeasing to us, it is only from the
indifference we feel for those who write them. Admitting this
observation to be true, I leave you to judge what pleasure yours
afford me. It is a fine thing, truly, to play the great lady, as
you do at present.

Conceive the foregoing multiplied by the whole number of the separate
letters composing the correspondence, and you will have no exaggerated
idea of the display that Madame de Sevigne makes of her regard for her
daughter. This regard was a passion, morbid, no doubt, by excess, and,
even at that, extravagantly demonstrated; but it was fundamentally
sincere. Madame de Sevigne idealized her absent daughter, and literally
"loved but only her." We need not wholly admire such maternal affection.
But we should not criticise it too severely.

We choose next a marvellously vivid "instantaneous view," in words, of a
court afternoon and evening at Versailles. This letter, too, is
addressed to the daughter--Madame de Grignan, by her married name. It
bears date, "Paris, Wednesday, 29th July." The year is 1676, and the
writer is just fifty:--

I was at Versailles last Saturday with the Villarses.... At three
the king, the queen, Monsieur [eldest brother to the king], Madame
[that brother's wife], Mademoiselle [that brother's eldest
unmarried daughter], and every thing else which is royal, together
with Madame de Montespan [the celebrated mistress of the king] and
train, and all the courtiers, and all the ladies,--all, in short,
which constitutes the court of France, is assembled in the
beautiful apartment of the king's, which you remember. All is
furnished divinely, all is magnificent. Such a thing as heat is
unknown; you pass from one place to another without the slightest
pressure. A game at _reversis_ [the description is of a gambling
scene, in which Dangeau figures as a cool and skilful gamester]
gives the company a form and a settlement. The king and Madame de
Montespan keep a bank together; different tables are occupied by
Monsieur, the queen, and Madame de Soubise, Dangeau and party,
Langlee and party. Everywhere you see heaps of louis d'ors; they
have no other counters. I saw Dangeau play, and thought what fools
we all were beside him. He dreams of nothing but what concerns the
game