t, and
she was impatient with the talk in which an evening was often passed
among these men without any definite results. As she measured their
strength, she became more outspoken. She communicated to them a spark
of her own energy. The most daring moves were made at her bidding. She
urged on her timid and conservative husband, she drew up his memorials,
she wrote his letters, she was at once his stimulus, and his helper.
Weak and vacillating men yielded to her rapid insight, her vigor, her
earnestness, and her persuasive eloquence. This was probably the period
of her greatest influence. Many of the swift changes of those first
months may be traced to her salon. The moves which were made in the
Assembly were concocted there, the orators who triumphed found their
inspiration there. Still, in spite of her energy, her strength, and
her courage, she prides herself upon maintaining always the reserve and
decorum of her sex.

If she assumed the favorite role of the French woman for a short time
while her husband was in the ministry, it was in a sternly republican
fashion. She gave dinners twice a week to her husband's political
friends. The fifteen or twenty men who met around her table at five
o'clock were linked by political interests only. The service was simple,
with no other luxury than a few flowers. There were no women to temper
the discussions or to lighten their seriousness. After dinner the guests
lingered for an hour or so in the drawing room, but by nine o'clock it
was deserted. She received on Friday, but what a contrast to the Fridays
of Mme. Necker in those same apartments! It was no longer a brilliant
company of wits, savants, and men of letters, enlivened by women of
beauty, esprit, rank, and fashion. There was none of the diversity of
taste and thought which lends such a charm to social life. Mme. Roland
tells us that she never had an extended circle at any time, and that,
while her husband was in power, she made and received no visits, and
invited no women to her house. She saw only her husband's colleagues,
or those who were interested in his tastes and pursuits, which were also
her own. The world of society wearied her. She was absorbed in a single
purpose. If she needed recreation, she sought it in serious studies.

It is always difficult to judge what a man or a woman might have been
under slightly altered conditions. But for some single circumstance that
converged and focused their talent, many a hero