of the time--an indifference which developed into an incurable
malady and an all-consuming egoism, stifling the heart-beat of that
world which was weary of everything and yet was unwilling to close its
eyes.

Marie de Vichy-Chamrond was born in 1697, of a noble family. She began
the same manner of life as that followed by most French women, being
reared in the Convent of Madeleine de Frenel, where, when quite young,
she evinced a strong spirit of impiety, giving expression to the most
sceptical opinions upon religious subjects, to the great dismay of
her superiors and parents. At the age of twenty she was married to the
Marquis du Deffand, who had but his brevet of colonel of a regiment of
dragoons, and whose intelligence and fortune were of a _nullite rare_.
However, her marriage was a sort of emancipation which enabled her to
enter society; and it is asserted that she soon became the mistress of
Philippe of Orleans, the regent, from whom she received six thousand
francs life income.

As the result of a disagreement, she separated from her husband, and
then began a life of pleasure among the gayest of the most fashionable
world, where, through the power of her brilliancy, wit, charm, and
fascinating beauty, she immediately became a leader. After passing
through all the phases of social life and its varied experiences--from
the society of Mme. de Prie, the type of the dissolute woman of
the Regency, from the famous suppers of the regent, whose ingenious
inventions of lewd and wanton pleasures made him notorious, from an
association with the intriguing Duchesse de Maine, to all the great
and influential social centres of Paris--in short, after pursuing
a career of fashionable dissipation, she became reconciled to her
husband, and lived with him in peace and happiness for a short time;
but six months of regular life affected her behavior toward the poor
marquis to such a degree that he thought it best to leave her. After
that episode, she returned to her lover; and, rejected by him and her
friends, and becoming the subject of the gossip of the entire city,
she sought consolation from one acquaintance after another, and was
miserable all the time.

At the age of about thirty-four, Mme. du Deffand returned to a kind
of regular life, and, in time, won a reputation for _esprit_, regained
her honorable friends and established for herself a kind of accepted
authority. Thus, when she opened a salon in 1742, she was able to