etely vindicated. Grimm then became her third lover.

This third marriage, so to speak, was one of reason; the first was one
of mere emancipation; the second, one of passion and genuine love.
In 1755, worn out physically, she took a trip to Switzerland, to be
treated by the famous Dr. Tronchin; there she became so ill that Grimm
was summoned. They remained together for about two years, and after
her return to Paris she reopened her salon of "La Chevrette." Her
reunions partook more of the nature of our house parties; the salon
was an immense room, in which the members would pair off and divert
themselves as they pleased; in that respect "La Chevrette" was
unique. After her fortune, which at one time was quite large, became
diminished, partly through her own extravagance and partly through
that of her son, who was the very counterpart of his father, she was
forced to rent "La Chevrette" and, later on, "La Briche," where she
had opened her second salon.

The last years of her life she spent in Paris with Grimm. She had
reached such a physical condition that her sufferings could be
relieved only by the use of opium. Financial relief came to her in
1783, when the Academy awarded her the Montyon prize, then given for
the first time, for her _Conversations d'Emilie_. She died in the same
year, surrounded by her dearest friends--Grimm, M. and Mme. Belgunce,
and Mme. d'Houdetot.

Mme. d'Epinay, in many respects, was a remarkable woman. Amid all her
social duties, with all her physical and mental troubles, she found
time to help others and to manage her own business affairs and
those of her children, took an active interest in art, music, and
literature, raised, with the utmost care, her granddaughter, produced
one of the best works of the time for children, made tapestry, and
wrote innumerable letters. Her fortune was lost through the reforms of
Necker.

She was not a beautiful woman; but she was distinguished by a small,
thin figure, an abundance of rich dark hair, which brought out in
striking relief the peculiar whiteness of her skin, and large brown
eyes. Her five lovers she called her five bears: Rousseau, Grimm,
Desmoulin, Saint-Lambert, Gauffecourt. An epistle to Grimm begins
thus;

"Moi, de cinq ours la souveraine,
Qui leur donne et present des lois,
Faut-il que je sois a la fois
Et votre esclave et votre reine,
O des tyrans le plus tyran?"

[I, sovereign over five bears,
Who give and prescribe