e will make as many enemies as her mother makes friends and adorers."
He did not like her, and one must again take his opinion with
reserve; but she says of herself that she is "of a temperament little
communicative." In her mature life she naively writes: "At first people
thought me amiable enough, but when they knew me better they loved me no
more." "The prettiest girl in France," whose beauty was expected to "set
the world on fire," created a mild sensation at court; was noticed by
the king, who danced with her, received her share of adulation, and
finally became the third wife of the Comte de Grignan, who carried her
off to Provence, to the lasting grief of her adoring mother, and to
the great advantage of posterity, which owes to this fact the series of
incomparable letters that made the fame of their writer, and threw so
direct and vivid a light upon an entire generation.

The world has been inclined to regard the son of Mme. de Sevigne as the
more lovable of her two children, but she doubtless recognized in his
light and inconsequent character many of the qualities of her husband
which had given her so much sorrow during the brief years of her
marriage. Amiable, affectionate, and not without talent, he was
nevertheless the source of many anxieties and little pride. He followed
in the footsteps of his father, and became a willing victim to the
fascinations of Ninon; he frequented the society of Champmesle, where he
met habitually Boileau and Racine. He recited well, had a fine literary
taste, much sensibility, and a gracious ease of manner that made him
many friends. "He was almost as much loved as I am," remarked the
brilliant Mme. de Coulanges, after accompanying him on a visit to
Versailles. He appealed to Mme. de La Fayette to use her influence with
his mother to induce her to pay his numerous debts. There is a touch of
satire in the closing line of the note in which she intercedes for him.
"The great friendship you have for Mme. de Grignan," she writes, "makes
it necessary to show some for her brother."--But we have glimpses of his
weakness and instability in many of his mother's intimate letters. In
the end, however, having exhausted the pleasures of life and felt the
bitterness of its disappointments, he took refuge in devotion, and died
in the odor of sanctity, after the example of his devout ancestress.

Mme. de Grignan certainly offered a more solid foundation for her
mother's confidence and affection. I