on being shown a box containing their portraits: "That is receipt and
expenditure"--the credit and debit. She was one of the few prominent
women who died in favor and in comfortable circumstances.

The lowest and most depraved of this licentious class of women was
Mlle. La Guimard, the legitimate daughter of a factory inspector of
cloth. In 1758 she entered the opera as a ballet girl, but very
little is known of her during the first years of her career except in
connection with her numerous lovers. In about 1768 she was living in
most sumptuous style, her extravagances being paid for by two lovers,
the Prince de Soubise, her _amant utile_, and the farmer-general, M.
de La Borde, her _amant honoraire_.

At this period she gave three suppers weekly: one for all the great
lords at court and of distinction; the second for authors, scholars,
and artists; the third being a supper of _debauchees_, the most
seductive and lascivious girls of the opera; at the last function,
luxury and debauch were carried to unknown extremes. At her
superb country home, "Pantin," she gave private performances, the
magnificence of which was unprecedented and admission to which was an
honor as eagerly sought as was that of attendance at Versailles.

There was another side to the nature of Mlle. La Guimard: during the
terrible cold of the winter of 1768, she went about alone visiting the
poor and needy, distributing food and clothing purchased with the six
thousand livres given her by her lover, the Prince de Soubise, as
a New Year's gift. Her charity became so general that people of all
professions and classes went to her for assistance--actors and artists
to borrow the money with which to pay their debts, officers with the
same object in view. To one of the latter to whom she had just lent a
hundred louis and who was about to sign a note, she said: "Sir, your
word is sufficient. I imagine that an officer will have as much honor
as _fille d'opera_."

Her performances at "Pantin" and her luxurious mode of life required
more money than the two lovers were able to supply; therefore, another
was accepted in the person of the Bishop of Orleans, Monseigneur de
Jarente, who supplied her with money and other necessaries. In 1771
she decided to build a hotel with an elegant theatre which would
comfortably seat five hundred people. The opening of this Temple de
Terpsichore was the great event of the year (1772). All the nobility
was there, even the prin