d, and in this case there was no Diderot who
pleaded for M. de Joinville. I vainly endeavored to discover what I had
done to offend him; I could not recollect a circumstance at which he
could possibly have taken offence. I was certain of never having spoken
of him or his in any other than in the most honorable manner; for he had
acquired my friendship, and besides my having nothing but favorable
things to say of him, my most inviolable maxim has been that of never
speaking but in an honorable manner of the houses I frequented.

At length, by continually ruminating. I formed the following conjecture:
the last time we had seen each other, I had supped with him at the
apartment of some girls of his acquaintance, in company with two or three
clerks in the office of foreign affairs, very amiable men, and who had
neither the manner nor appearance of libertines; and on my part, I can
assert that the whole evening passed in making melancholy reflections on
the wretched fate of the creatures with whom we were. I did not pay
anything, as M. de Joinville gave the supper, nor did I make the girls
the least present, because I gave them not the opportunity I had done to
the padoana of establishing a claim to the trifle I might have offered,
We all came away together, cheerfully and upon very good terms. Without
having made a second visit to the girls, I went three or four days
afterwards to dine with M. de Joinville, whom I had not seen during that
interval, and who gave me the reception of which I have spoken. Unable
to suppose any other cause for it than some misunderstanding relative to
the supper, and perceiving he had no inclination to explain, I resolved
to visit him no longer, but I still continued to send him my works: he
frequently sent me his compliments, and one evening, meeting him in the
green-room of the French theatre, he obligingly reproached me with not
having called to see him, which, however, did not induce me to depart
from my resolution. Therefore this affair had rather the appearance of a
coolness than a rupture. However, not having heard of nor seen him since
that time, it would have been too late after an absence of several years,
to renew my acquaintance with him. It is for this reason M. de Joinville
is not named in my list, although I had for a considerable time
frequented his house.

I will not swell my catalogue with the names of many other persons with
whom I was or had become less intimate, alt