Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/145

126 upon you the pleasure of reading, and re-reading every morn- ing a scene of that divine music ; then you must walk about, and then compose verses, and with the talent that nature has given you to think and feel strongly, I will answer for it that you will make very noble ones. But what am I doing ? Advising a man who has a great contempt for my taste, who thinks me a fool, who has never seen me sensible about any- thing, and who, judging me thus, may perhaps be sensible himself and show as much accuracy as justice. Adieu, mon ami. If you loved me I should not be so modest; I should feel I had nothing in all nature to envy.

I wrote you a volume yesterday to Bordeaux. That name is dreadful to me ; it touches the sensitive and painful nerve of my soul. Adieu, adieu. i You know that M. Turgot is controller-general, but what you do not know is the conversation he had with the king on the subject. He had shown some reluctance to accept the office when M. de Maurepas offered it to him on behalf of His Majesty. The king said to him, " So you do not wish to be controller-general?" "Sire," replied M. Turgot, "I must admit to Your Majesty that I should have preferred to keep the ministry of the navy, because it is a safer office and I could be more certain of doing well in it ; but at such a moment as this it is not to the king I give myself, it is to the honest man." The king took both his hands, and said, " You shall not be mistaken." M. Turgot added : " Sire, I must represent to Y. M. the necessity of economy, of which Y. M. ought to set the first example ; the Abbd Terrai has no doubt already said this to Your Majesty." "Yes," replied the king, "he has said it, but he has never said it in the way that you have." AU this is just as if you had heard it, for M. Turgot never adds a word to the truth. This emo-