Marie
de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette, was in her thirtieth year, La
Rochefoucauld had completed his fiftieth when some cause which remains
obscure drew them together with a tie which death alone, after
seventeen wonderful years of almost unbroken association, was to
sever. There was no scandal about it, even in that scandal-mongering
age. The astute Mile de Scudery, writing to her gossip Bussy Rabutin
(December 6, 1675), says, "Nothing could be happier for her, or more
dignified for him; the fear of God on either side, and perhaps
prudence as well, have clipped the wings of love." Twelve years
before, when Menage had repeated to her some critical remarks about
her novel, "La Princesse de Montpensier," Mme de La Fayette had
replied, "I am greatly obliged to M. de la Rochefoucauld for his
expressions. They are the result of our similarity of experience, 'de
la belle sympathie qui est entre nous.'"
[Footnote 7: Mme de Sevigne seems not to have known this
when, in writing to her daughter (July 19, 1671), she claims
to have been the first to say _vraie_ when she meant
sincere, loyal.
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