irit of urbanity
and politeness that was even then going out of fashion. Her quiet and
earnest though interesting conversation was somewhat overshadowed by the
impetuous eloquence of Mme. de Stael, who gave the tone to every circle
into which she came. "I am more and more convinced that I am not made
for the great world," she said to the Duchesse de Lauzun, with an accent
of regret. "It is Germaine who should shine there and who should love
it, for she possesses all the qualities which put her in a position to
be at once feared and sought."

If she was allied to the past, however, by her tastes and her
sympathies, she belonged to the future by her convictions, and her
many-sided intellect touched upon every question of the day. Profoundly
religious herself, she was broadly tolerant; always delicate in health,
she found time amid her numerous social duties to aid the poor and
suffering, and to establish the hospital that still bears her name. Her
letters and literary records reveal a woman of liberal thought and fine
insight, as well as scholarly tastes. If she lacked a little in the
facile graces of the French women, she had to an eminent degree the
qualities of character that were far rarer in her age and sphere. Though
she was cold and reserved in manner, beneath the light snow which she
brought from her native hills beat a heart of warm and tender, even
passionate, impulses. Devoted wife, loyal friend, careful mother,
large-minded and large-souled woman, she stands conspicuous, in a period
of lax domestic relations, for the virtues that grace the fireside as
well as for the talents that shine in the salon.

But she was not exempt from the sorrows of a nature that exacts from
life more than life can give, and finds its illusions vanish before
the cold touch of experience. She had her hours of darkness and of
suffering. Even the love that was the source of her keenest happiness
was also the source of her sharpest griefs. In the days of her husband's
power she missed the exclusive attention she craved. There were moments
when she doubted the depth of his affection, and felt anew that her
"eyes were wedded to eternal tears." She could not see without pain his
extreme devotion to her daughter, whose rich nature, so spontaneous,
so original, so foreign to her own, gave rise to many anxieties and
occasional antagonisms. This touches the weak point in her character.
She was not wholly free from a certain egotism and intelle