t with scorn and contempt and been expelled from her
house and society without ever being permitted to regain either. The
natural wants of her heart and mind, and what she was pleased to call
the natural gratifications of physical wants, were her mentors, and to
them she listened, never dreaming of holding them at a pecuniary
value.

One of her dearest friends was Scarron, once the husband of Madame de
Maintenon, the pious leader of a debased court and the saintly
mistress of the king of France. In his younger days, Scarron
contributed largely to the pleasures of the Oiseaux des Tournelles,
the ecclesiastical collar he then wore not being sufficient to prevent
his enjoying worldly pleasures.

In the course of time Scarron fell ill, and was reduced to a dreadful
condition, no one coming to his succor but Ninon. Like a tender,
compassionate friend, she sympathized deeply with him, when he was
carried to the suburb Saint Germain to try the effects of the baths as
an alleviation of his pains. Scarron did not complain, on the
contrary, he was cheerful and always gay even when suffering tortures.
There was little left of him, however, but an indomitable spirit
burning in a crushed tenement of mortal clay. Not being able to come
to her, Ninon went to him, and passed entire days at his side. Not
only that, she brought her friends with her and established a small
court around his bed, thus cheering him in his pain and doing him a
world of good, which finally enabled his spirit to triumph over his
mortal shell.

Instances might be multiplied, enough to fill a volume, of her
devotion to her friends, whom she never abandoned and whom she was
always ready with purse and counsel to aid in their difficulties. A
curious instance is that of Nicolas Vauquelin, sieur de Desyvetaux,
whom she missed from her circle for several days. Aware that he had
been having some family troubles, and that his fortune was menaced,
she became alarmed, thinking that perhaps some misfortune had come
upon him, for which reason she resolved to seek him and help him out
of his difficulties. But Ninon was mistaken in supposing that so wise
and gay an Epicurean could be crushed by any sorrow or trouble.
Desyvetaux was enjoying himself in so singular a fashion that it is
worth telling.

This illustrious Epicurean, finding one night a young girl in a
fainting condition at his door, brought her into his house to succor
her, moved by an impulse of humanity. Bu