never she tired of French vivacity, she would spend an evening with
Mme. Necker.

A letter of Walpole to Montagu leaves, on the whole, a splendid
picture of her: "I have heard her dispute with all sorts of people,
upon all sorts of subjects, and never knew her to be in the wrong.
She humbles the learned, sets right their disciples, and finds
conversation for everybody. As affectionate as Mme. de Sevigne, she
has none of her prejudices, but a more universal taste; and with the
most delicate frame, her spirits hurry her through a life of fatigue
that would kill me were I to remain here."

The simple furnishings of her apartments, which were very spacious
and had been occupied by the famous Mme. de Montespan, stood out in
striking contrast to the elegance of her visitors. Here she gathered
about her her two lovers, _le President_ Henault and Pont de Veyle,
besides D'Alembert, Turgot, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Necker, Walpole,
the Abbes Barthelemy and Pernetty, the Chevalier de Lisle, de Formant,
_le Docteur_ Gatti, Hume, Gibbon, Baron de Gleichen, and many other
celebrities, including the Princesses de Beauvau, de Poix, de Talmont,
the Duchesses de Choiseul, d'Aiguillon, de Gramont, the Marechale de
Luxembourg, the Marquises de Boufflers and du Chatelet, the Comtesses
de Rochefort, de Broglie, de Forcalquier, Mme. Necker, Lady Pembroke,
De Lauzun, and many others, all of whom were society leaders. Whenever
Mme. du Deffand had a special supper, it was said that Paris was at
Mme. du Deffand's.

Her salon, above all others, was the centre of cosmopolitanism,
where all great men, foreigners and natives, found means of social
intercourse, and where, more than in any other salon, were assembled
the great beauties of the day, represented especially by the
Countesses de Forcalquier and Choiseul-Beaupre, Duchesse de La
Valliere. Gallantry and beauty were found in the Marechale de
Luxembourg and the Comtesse de Boufflers. The philosophical movement
of the Encyclopaedists and Economists was not encouraged at all.
Thus, in Mme. du Deffand's salon, we find neither pure philosophy nor
religion, nor the air of pedants and _declamateurs_; it was a royalist
salon without illusion, hence indifferent to all questions. It
represented the perfect type of the French model of _esprit de
finesse_,--that is, precision,--and its leader possessed a keen
insight into human character.

This wonderful woman, who, during a period of over forty years,