t they are better than those of yesterday;
Madame de Choisy hopes that her ridicule of Jansenism will not provoke
Madame de Sable to refuse her the receipt for salad; and La Rochefoucauld
writes: "You cannot do me a greater charity than to permit the bearer of
this letter to enter into the mysteries of your marmalade and your
genuine preserves, and I humbly entreat you to do everything you can in
his favor. If I could hope for two dishes of those preserves, which I
did not deserve to eat before, I should be indebted to you all my life."
For our own part, being as far as possible from fraternizing with those
spiritual people who convert a deficiency into a principle, and pique
themselves on an obtuse palate as a point of superiority, we are not
inclined to number Madame de Sable's _friandise_ among her defects. M.
Cousin, too, is apologetic on this point. He says:

"It was only the excess of a delicacy which can be really understood,
and a sort of fidelity to the character of _precieuse_. As the
_precieuse_ did nothing according to common usage, she could not dine
like another. We have cited a passage from Mme. de Motteville, where
Mme. de Sable is represented in her first youth at the Hotel de
Rambouillet, maintaining that woman is born to be an ornament to the
world, and to receive the adoration of men. The woman worthy of the
name ought always to appear above material wants, and retain, even in
the most vulgar details of life, something distinguished and
purified. Eating is a very necessary operation, but one which is not
agreeable to the eye. Mme. de Sable insisted on its being conducted
with a peculiar cleanliness. According to her it was not every woman
who could with impunity be at table in the presence of a lover; the
first distortion of the face, she said, would be enough to spoil all.
Gross meals made for the body merely ought to be abandoned to
_bourgeoises_, and the refined woman should appear to take a little
nourishment merely to sustain her, and even to divert her, as one
takes refreshments and ices. Wealth did not suffice for this: a
particular talent was required. Mme. de Sable was a mistress in this
art. She had transported the aristocratic spirit, and the _genre
precieux_, good breeding and good taste, even into cookery. Her
dinners, without any opulence, were celebrated and sought after."

It is quite