Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/38

Rh that the girl had passed her early years with the son of Mme. d'Albon, the Vicomte d'Albon. We may suppose that those years were spent in the ancient manor of Avranches, situated on the road from Eoanne to Lyon, a patrimonial domain of the d'Albons which her mother, the last representative of that branch of the family, inherited from her father, the Marquis de Saint-Forgeux, in 1729.

The painful and almost tragic scenes which, it is only too true, darkened the young girl's youth, took place undoubtedly during the first months after her mother's death and, more especially, during the five years from 1747 to 1752, which she passed at Chamrond with the Marquise de Vichy, legiti- mate daughter of the Comtesse d'Albon. The young girl had accepted the proposal to live there, believing that she would be treated as a friend. She was almost immediately made governess to the children, three in number, the eldest being scarcely eight years old. But the bitterness of her position came much less from the humble duties she was required to perform than from the manner in which she was treated. When Mme. du Deffand went to pass the summer of 1752 at Chamrond with her brother and sister-in-law, she noticed the intelligence and the charm of Mile, de Les- pinasse, and was also struck by the air of sadness which dimmed her face. Soon she obtained her confidence. " She told me," says Mme. du Deffand, " that it was no longer pos- sible for her to remain with M. and Mme. de Vichy ; that she had long borne the harshest and most humiliating treat- ment ; that her patience was now at an end, and for more than a year she had declared to Mme. de Vichy that she must go away, being unable to bear any longer the scenes that were made to her daily."

Nevertheless, the conduct of Mile, de Lespinasse on the death of her mother had been such as ought to have won her