Young, handsome, and daring, he was pre-eminently calculated both
to inspire love, and to feel it; it was quite impossible for him
to fail in winning the affections of any female he exerted himself
to please, and even at the present time that he has lost some of
his earlier graces, he is still irresistible as ever; his naturally
gay disposition was but ill suited to nourishing grave or philosophic
reasoning, but then he was the soul of company, and possessed a
fine and delicate wit which ever vented itself in the most brilliant
sallies. M. de Cosse like the knights of old, was wholly devoted
to his king and his mistress, and would, I am sure, had the
occasion required it, have nobly died in defence of either; I only
pray he may never be put to the proof. I saw much of him at the
beginning of our acquaintance, but as his many amiable qualities
became better known, I found myself almost continually in his
society, indeed as I have something to confess in the business, I
could hardly choose a better opportunity than the present, did I
not recollect that the good duc d'Aiguillon is waiting all this
while for me to announce the < entree > of our party into the
ante-room of Madame de Valentinois.
My entrance was a complete
. I had been
imagined languishing on the bed of sickness, yet there I stood
in all the fulness of health and freshness of beauty.
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