overty, wife in name, but practically secretary and nurse
of a crippled, witty, and licentious poet over whose salon she presided
brilliantly; discreet and penniless widow, governess of the illegitimate
children of the king, adviser and finally wife of that king, friend of
Ninon, model of virtue, femme d'esprit, politician, diplomatist, and
devote--no fairy tale can furnish more improbable adventures and more
striking contrasts. But she was the product of exceptional circumstances
joined to an exceptional nature. It is true she put a final touch upon
the purity of manners which was so marked a feature of the Hotel de
Rambouillet, and for a long period gave a serious tone to the social
life of France. But she ruled through repression, and one is inclined
to accept the opinion of Sainte-Beuve that she does not represent the
distinctive social current of the time. In Mme. de La Fayette we find
its delicacy, its courtesy, its elegance, its intelligence, its critical
spirit, and its charm.

In considering the great centers in which the fashionable, artistic,
literary, and scientific Paris of the seventeenth century found its
meeting ground, one is struck with the practical training given to its
versatile, flexible feminine minds. Women entered intelligently and
sympathetically into the interests of men, who, in turn, did not
reserve their best thoughts for the club or an after-dinner talk among
themselves. There was stimulus as well as diversity in the two modes of
thinking and being. Men became more courteous and refined, women more
comprehensive and clear. But conversation is the spontaneous overflow
of full minds, and the light play of the intellect is only possible on
a high level, when the current thought has become a part of the daily
life, so that a word suggests infinite perspectives to the swift
intelligence. It is not what we know, but the flavor of what we know,
that adds"sweetness and light" to social intercourse. With their rapid
intuition and instinctive love of pleasing, these French women were
quick to see the value of a ready comprehension of the subjects in which
clever men are most interested. It was this keen understanding, added to
the habit of utilizing what they thought and read, their ready facility
in grasping the salient points presented to them, a natural gift
of graceful expression, with a delicacy of taste and an exquisite
politeness which prevented them from being aggressive, that gave them
thei