The king loves you:
so much the better. You will have a double empire over him. He
did not love the marquise, and allowed himself to be governed by
her; for with him--I ask pardon of your excessive beauty--custom
does all. It is necessary, my dear countess, to use the double lever
you have, of your own charms and his constant custom to do
to-morrow what he does to-day because he did it yesterday, and
for this you lack neither grace nor wit."
I had heard a great deal concerning madame de Mirepoix; but I
own to you, that before I heard her speak I had no idea what sort
of a person she would prove. She had an air of so much frankness
and truth, that it was impossible not to be charmed by it. The greater
part of the time I did not know how to defend myself from her--at
once so natural and so perfidious; and occasionally I allowed myself
to love her with all my heart, so much did she seem to cherish me
with all enthusiasm. She had depth of wit, a piquancy of expression,
and knew how to disguise those interested adulations with turns
so noble and beautiful that I have never met, neither before nor
since, any woman worthy of being compared with her. She was,
in her single self, a whole society; and certainly there was no
possibility of being wearied when she was there. Her temper was
most equable, a qualification rarely obtained without a loss of
warmth of feeling.
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