Page:Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse.djvu/39

24 not only the esteem and respect, but the affection of those who, by blood if not by law, were her brother and sister. Put in possession of a large sum of money by her dying mother, who intended to have secured to her a rich future, she had generously and spontaneously given it to the Vicomte d'Albon, thus reducing herself to the modest income of a hundred crowns left to her by the will of her mother.

Mile, de Lespinasse had resolved to fling herself into a convent rather 'than remain longer with the Yichys, when Mme. du Deffand, now nearly blind and seeking a com- panion, proposed to the young girl to live with her in Paris, in that convent of Saint- Joseph which, with nothing cloistral about it, served (like the Abbaye-aux-Bois in our own day) as a decent but very worldly retreat for a small number of women of rank, in which each had her separate and inde- pendent suite of rooms. It was in October, 1752, that Mme. du Deffand made this proposal to Mile, de Lespinasse, but it was not until sixteen months later, in April, 1754, that the latter was able to accept an offer she had welcomed eagerly. She spent those months in a convent at Lyon, under the friendly eye and protection of Cardinal de Tencin. The delay was caused by futile efforts to obtain the con- sent of the Vicomte dAlbon and Mme. de Vichy to the new arrangement. Pilled with incurable distrust, the brother and sister refused to sanction a project which they regarded as a menace to their prosperity ; although Mme. du Deffand had taken upon herself the care of avoiding that danger by exacting from Mile, de Lespinasse a pledge never to use her new position to establish her rights to the name and to a share in the fortune of the d'Albon family. The following extracts from the letters of Mme. du Deffand throw light on this period : —