hat she had said, asked me the
question.

"Why," I replied, "she said, that if I would follow your counsels, you
would pay me for my condescension."

"Ah! madame," he exclaimed, "she has completely murdered me. I only
charged her to offer my services to you, and throw myself at your feet,
as I do now."

"Rise, prince, I do not accuse you of such folly, and promise not to
mention it: it is necessary, however, that you should know I have but
one part to play here, that of pleasing the king. Any other character
will not suit me. Honor me with your friendship, and accept mine in
return. I cannot, must not, have any other union with you."

Thus terminated this interview; it did not suit me to give the prince
de Soubise any hopes. He and all the Rohans would have lived on it; they
would have turned my confidence to their gain, and as they were for the
most part sharpers, or something akin to it, my name would soon have
been mixed up with some dirty transaction. His family was a hydra of
avarice, and would alone have swallowed up all the wealth of France. If
the king had taken one of the Rohan family for his mistress, I believe
that the finance department would not have sufficed for one year's
expenditure of this prodigal family. I had no objection to the prince de
Soubise coming to supper with me, but I did not feel myself disposed to
give him any control over my mind. I should have been ill-guided by a
man who had no government of himself.

If M, de Soubise did not depart satisfied, madame de Marsan, his
relative, to whom he related the bad success of his attempt, was not
more so. She was a woman to have governed a kingdom, had she been
allowed to do so. There was in her woman's head a capacity superior to
that of all the men of her family. She had a great deal of ambition, and
all her actions were the results of a premeditated plan. She would have
ruled the king, the princes, the princesses, favorites, mistresses, the
court, the city, the parliaments, and the army! Nothing would have been
impossible to her; she was adequate to any thing. Circumstances did not
give her the opportunity of displaying her genius. With great talents
and keen perception, she was reduced to the government of her own family
alone; that was but a trifling matter! In spite of her discontent,
madame de Marsan preserved a sort of neutrality towards me. She allowed
all sorts of ill to be spoken of me without ever repressing a word.
She was then mu