the Marquis de Chastellux, which was reported by Mme.
Genlis, one of her intimate friends:

"Dining at Mme. Necker's, the marquis was first to arrive, and so
early that the hostess was not yet in the salon. In walking up and
down the room, he noticed a small book under Mme. Necker's chair. He
picked it up and opened it. It was a blank book, a few of the pages
of which had been written upon by Mme. Necker. Certainly, he would
not have read a letter, but, believing to find only a few spiritual
thoughts, he read without any scruples. It contained the plan for the
dinner of that day, to which he had been invited, and had been written
by Mme. Necker on the previous evening. It told what she would say to
the most prominent of the invited guests. She wrote: 'I shall speak
to the Chevalier de Chastellux about public felicity and Agatha; to M.
d'Angeviller, I shall speak of love; between Marmontel and Guibert
I shall raise some literary discussion.' After reading the note, he
hurriedly replaced the book under the chair. A moment later, a valet
entered, saying that madame had left her notebook in the salon. The
dinner was charming for M. de Chastellux, because he had the pleasure
of hearing Mme. Necker say, word for word, what she had written in her
notebook."

This woman was ever preoccupied with style, and, throughout her life,
retained the solemn, studied, and academic air, as well as the simple,
rural, innocent manner and spirit of her early surroundings. A mere
bourgeoise, unaccustomed to elegance or to the manners of French
social life, upon entering Parisian society she set her mind to
observing, and immediately began to change her provincial ways and to
make over her _esprit_ for conversation, for circumstances, and for
characters; she adjusted her provincial spirit to that of Paris, thus
making of it an entirely new product. Later on, her salon became the
first of the modern political salons, but it was far from reaching the
prominence of that of Mme. Geoffrin, whose characteristics were social
prudence and strict propriety, while those of Mme. Necker were virtue
and goodness.

Mme. Necker was never in perfect sympathy with her visitors, the
philosophers, the common basis of ideas and sentiments never existing
between her and her friends as it did between Mme. Geoffrin and her
frequenters; her tie was always artificial. "She represented the Swiss
spirit in Parisian society; those serious and educated souls, virtuous