omedy you would have laughed too."

I should like to know who wouldn't have laughed to tears, after it was
over. The scene is priceless.

But all the same, it is not Madame de Sevigne's _genre_. She is
mistress of the chuckle, not of the _fou rire_; and La Plessis is not
one of her best characters. The _petite personne_, however, is; and I
must give a very pretty scene, quite in her own manner, where she is
half laughing at the child and half in love with her too.

"The _petite personne_ is still here, and always delightful.
She has a sharp little wit of her own, too, as new as a young
chick's. We enjoy telling her things, for she knows nothing
at all, and it makes a kind of game to enlighten her on
all sides--with a word or two about the Universe, or about
Empires, or countries, or kings, or religions, or wars, or
Fate, or the map. There's a pretty jumble of facts to put
tidily away in a little head which has never seen a town, nor
even a river, and has never really supposed that the world
went any farther than the end of the park! But she is
delicious. I was telling her to-day about the taking of
Wismar; and she understands quite well that we are sorry about
it because the King of Sweden is our ally. See how wildly we
amuse ourselves."

The last sentence is for the _chere bonne's_ benefit, who was very
capable herself of being jealous of the _petite personne_. I fancy
the touch about Fidele was put in with the same object. She had to be
infinitely careful with the _chere bonne's_ black dogs.

In another month the _petite personne_ is so far advanced that she
can be secretary to her patroness, whose poor hand is too swollen to
write. Elaborate perambulations introduce her to the _chere bonne_.
"My son has gone to Vitre on some business or other. That is why I
give his functions of secretary over to the little lady of whom I
have often told you, and who begs you to be pleased to allow her, with
great respect, to kiss your hands." That, I should think, was courtesy
enough even for the pouting great lady of Provence. In a later letter
she kisses Madame de Grignan's _left_ hand; so it is written--by
herself, but to dictation. Thus the proper distances were kept by one
as humane as Madame de Sevigne when she was dealing with her daughter
on the other side of idolatry.

But she herself and the child are on better terms than such discipline
would imply. In Februa