menced to play fast and loose with a M. Correvon, a rich
lawyer, whom she said she would marry 'if she had only to live with him
for four months in each year.'

"The next lover was a pastor, who was as mercenary as herself, for he
threw her over for a lady with a large fortune. After this failure to
establish herself, Suzanne became tired of seeking a husband in
Switzerland and went to Paris as the companion of the rich and handsome
Madame Vermoneux, the supposed mistress of Jacques Necker, the rich Swiss
banker, who was established in the French capital. Once in Paris, it was
not long before by her seductions Suzanne succeeded in supplanting Madame
Vermoneux in the still young banker's affections, with the result that she
married him in 1764.

"Gibbon, whom she had last seen in 1763, returned to the side of his
former love when she was at length safely married to another man. We find
him writing in 1765, to his friend Lord Sheffield, formerly Mr. Holroyd,
that he had spent ten delicious days in Paris about the end of June. 'She
was very fond of me, and the husband was particularly civil.' He continues
confidentially: 'Could they insult me more cruelly? Ask me every evening
to supper, go to bed and leave me alone with his wife--what an impertinent
security!'

"It was in the month of April in the following year, 1766, that was born
Madame Necker's only child, Anne Louise Germaine, who was destined to
become one of the most remarkable women of modern times. From the great
literary talent displayed by this wonderfully precocious child from
girlhood, it is difficult not to imagine but that in some, if merely
spiritual, way the genius of her mother's old lover had descended through
that mother's brain as a mantle upon herself. That she learnt to look upon
Gibbon with admiration at an early age is sure. Michelet informs us that
owing to the praises showered upon the historian by M. Necker, Germaine
was anxious, as her mother had been before her, to become Gibbon's wife.
She was, however, destined to have another husband--or rather we should
say two other husbands."

=iii=

_Recollections and Reflections_ by a Woman of No Importance has added
greatly to the number of this author's readers, gained in the first
instance by her _Memories Discreet and Indiscreet_, which was followed by
_More Indiscretions_.

_Recollections and Reflections_ consists of random memories of lords and
ladies, sportsmen, Kings, Queens, cooks, cha