Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/19

4 all such children as legitimate. Mme. du Deffand thought it right to take precautions, and dictated to her, with little deli- cacy, certain conditions on this point before permitting her to come to her ; for one who appreciated so well the young girl's mind it was knowing very little of her heart.

This arrangement of a life in common was made in 1754, and it lasted till 1764 : ten years of household companion- ship and concord ; a long period, longer than could have been hoped between two minds so equal in quality and associated with elements so impetuous. But finally, Mme. du Deffand, who rose late and was never afoot before six in the evening, discovered that her young companion was receiving in her private room, a good hour earlier, most of her own habitual visitors, thus taking for herself the first-fruits of their con- versation. Mme. du Deffand felt herself defrauded of her most cherished rights, and uttered loud outcries, as if it were a matter of domestic robbery. The storm was terrible, and could only end in a rupture. Mile, de Lespinasse left the convent of Saint- Joseph abruptly; her friends clubbed to- gether to make her a salon and a subsistence in the rue de Belle-Chasse. These friends were d'Alembert, Turgot, the Chevalier de Chastellux, Lom^nie de Brienne, the future archbishop and cardinal, Boisgelin, Archbishop of Aix, the Abb6 de Boismont, — in short, the flower of the minds of that day. This brilliant colony followed the emigrant spirit and her fortimes. From that moment Mile, de Lespinasse lived apart and became, through her salon and through her influ- ence on d'Alembert, one of the recognized powers of the eighteenth century.

Happy days ! when all life turned to sociability ; when all was arranged for the gentlest commerce of minds and for the best conversation. Not a vacant day, not a vacant hour ! If you were a man of letters and more or less of a philosopher.