st.
She had become something of a devotee, and very charitable. She knew by
name all the poor in her neighborhood. She occasionally was visited by
some of the notabilities of a past day, forgotten like herself.

In the _Amusements of the Heart and Mind_, a collection designed, as is
well known, to form the mind and the heart, Mademoiselle de Camargo is
charged with having had a thousand and more lovers! Without giving the lie
to this accusation, can I not prove it false by relating, in all its
simplicity, a fact which proves a profound passion on her part? A pretty
woman may dance at the opera, smile upon numberless admirers, live
carelessly from day to day, in the noisy excitement of the world; still,
there will be some blessed hours, when the heart, though often laid waste,
will flourish again all of a sudden. Love is like the sky, which looks
blue, even when reflected in the stream formed by the storm. It is thus
that love is occasionally found pure in a troubled heart. But, moreover,
this serious passion of Mademoiselle de Camargo was experienced by her in
all the freshness of her youth.

One morning, Grimm, Pont-de-Veyle, Duclos, Helvetius, presented themselves
in a gay mood, at the humble residence of the celebrated dancer. She was
then living in an old house in the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre. An aged
serving-woman opened the door.--"We wish to see Mademoiselle de Camargo,"
said Helvetius, who had great difficulty in keeping his countenance. The
old woman led them into a parlor that was furnished with peculiar and
grotesque-looking furniture. The wainscoting was covered with pastels
representing Mademoiselle de Camargo in all her grace, and in her
different characters. But the parlor was not adorned by her portraits
only; there was a _Christ on_ _the Mount of Olives_, a _Magdalen at the
Tomb_, a _Veiled Virgin_, a _Venus_, the _Three Graces_, some _Cupids_,
half concealed beneath some rosaries and sacred relics, and _Madonnas_,
covered with trophies from the opera!

The goddess of the place did not keep them a long time waiting; a door
opened, half-a-dozen dogs of every variety of breed sprang into the
parlor: it must be said, to the praise of Mademoiselle de Camargo, that
these were not lap-dogs. She appeared behind them, carrying in her arms
(looking like a fur muff) an Angora cat of fine growth. As she had not
followed the fashion for ten years or more, she appeared to have come from
the other world.--"You se