guished man, and generally finding that he regarded her overtures
with mockery. To enumerate the men for whom she professed to care would
be tedious, since the record of her passions has no reality about it,
save, perhaps, with two exceptions.

She did care deeply and sincerely for Henri Benjamin Constant, the
brilliant politician and novelist. He was one of her coterie in Paris,
and their common political sentiments formed a bond of friendship
between them. Constant was banished by Napoleon in 1802, and when Mme.
de Stael followed him into exile a year later he joined her in Germany.

The story of their relations was told by Constant in Adolphe, while
Mme. de Stael based Delphine on her experiences with him. It seems that
he was puzzled by her ardor; she was infatuated by his genius. Together
they went through all the phases of the tender passion; and yet, at
intervals, they would tire of each other and separate for a while, and
she would amuse herself with other men. At last she really believed
that her love for him was entirely worn out.

"I always loved my lovers more than they loved me," she said once, and
it was true.

Yet, on the other hand, she was frankly false to all of them, and hence
arose these intervals. In one of them she fell in with a young Italian
named Rocca, and by way of a change she not only amused herself with
him, but even married him. At this time--1811--she was forty-five,
while Rocca was only twenty-three--a young soldier who had fought in
Spain, and who made eager love to the she-philosopher when he was
invalided at Geneva.

The marriage was made on terms imposed by the middle-aged woman who
became his bride. In the first place, it was to be kept secret; and
second, she would not take her husband's name, but he must pass himself
off as her lover, even though she bore him children. The reason she
gave for this extraordinary exhibition of her vanity was that a change
of name on her part would put everybody out.

"In fact," she said, "if Mme. de Stael were to change her name, it
would unsettle the heads of all Europe!"

And so she married Rocca, who was faithful to her to the end, though
she grew extremely plain and querulous, while he became deaf and soon
lost his former charm. Her life was the life of a woman who had, in her
own phrase, "attempted everything"; and yet she had accomplished
nothing that would last. She was loved by a man of genius, but he did
not love her to the end. She