Mme. de Marans to her one
day, "I must have my hair cut." "Mon Dieu," replied Mme. de La Fayette
simply, "do not have it done; that is becoming only to young persons."
Gourville said she was imperious and over-bearing, scolding those she
loved best, as well as those she did not love. But this valet-de-chambre
of La Rochefoucauld, who amassed a fortune and became a man of some
note, was jealous of her influence over his former master, and his
opinions should be taken with reservation. Her delicate satire may have
been sometimes a formidable weapon, but it was directed only against
follies, and rarely, if ever, used unkindly. She was a woman for
intimacies, and it is to those who knew her best that we must look for
a just estimate of her qualities. "You would love her as soon as you
had time to be with her, and to become familiar with her esprit and her
wisdom," wrote Mme. de Sevigne to her daughter, who was disposed to be
critical; "the better one knows her, the more one is attached to her."

One must also take into consideration her bad health. People thought
her selfish or indifferent when she was only sad and suffering. For more
than twenty years she was ill, consumed by a slow fever which permitted
her to go out only at intervals. La Rochefoucauld had the gout, and they
consoled each other. Mme. de Sevigne thought it better not to have the
genius of a Pascal, than to have so many ailments. "Mme. De La Fayette
is always languishing, M. de La Rochefoucauld always lame," she writes;
"we have conversations so sad that it seems as if there were nothing
more to do but to bury us; the garden of Mme. de La Fayette is the
prettiest spot in the world, everything blooming, everything perfumed;
we pass there many evenings, for the poor woman does not dare go out in
a carriage." "Her health is never good," she writes again, "nevertheless
she sends you word that she should not like death better; AU CONTRAIRE."
There are times when she can no longer "think, or speak, or answer, or
listen; she is tired of saying good morning and good evening." Then she
goes away to Meudon for a few days, leaving La Rochefoucauld "incredibly
sad." She speaks for herself in a letter from the country house which
Gourville has placed at her disposal.

"I am at Saint Maur; I have left all my affairs and all my husbands; I
have my children and the fine weather; that suffices. I take the waters
of Forges; I look after my health, I see no one. I do not mind