Page:Sévigné - Letters to her Daughter and Friends, 1869.djvu/15



Rh unprincipled man, but distinguished for wit and talent, had always admired and loved, or pretended to be in love with his fascinating cousin, and she had always laughed at his flattery and rejected his suit. He took advantage of her husband's infidelity to offer an insulting proposal, that she should take her revenge. He was reproved in such terms of cold and calm severity as put a final repulse to his gallantry toward her. Though their intercourse continued friendly through life, yet, judging from the tone of her letters to him, always constrained, and confined chiefly- to his own affairs, we feel that, though she acknowledged their relationship, she never esteemed the man.

Her husband was killed in a duel, about seven years after marriage, and Madame de Sévigné, at the age of twenty -five, was left a widow, with two children, the eldest, her son, the youngest, that idolized daughter, who made the light of her mother's life.

In spite of the faults and vices of the Marquis de Sévigné, his sudden and shocking death greatly afflicted his wife. She was, for a time, nearly overwhelmed with sorrow, but soon found devolving upon her the hard and painful duty of endeavoring to extricate her estate from utter ruin. The follies and waste of her husband came near making her and the children penniless. She retired to the country, and, aided by the counsel and encouragement of her uncle the abbé, entered on her new duties. We quote from one of her French biographers, who seems to have searched out her history with great care :

" Madame de Sévigné's good sense, natural rectitude, and laudable pride, gave her a taste for economy, and the advice of her uncle taught her to understand it. Her mind, notwithstanding he habit of sacrificing to the Graces, had no repugnance to business. She well knew how to sell or let estates, receive her rents, direct her workmen, etc. She did not trust to her beauty alone for gaining law-suits. Ménage relates, that one day, recommending an affair with great ease and simplicity to the Président de Bellièvre, she felt herself at last a little embarrassed with the terms to be used, when she said, ' At least, sir, I know the air perfectly, but I forget the words.'

"With regard to education, not only do the merit of her son and daughter, as well as their virtues, show the extent of her capacity in this respect, but it would be easy to extract from her