ied with one room and an alcove for his
valet. My master replied that a bishop was a holier man than he. The
fact is, my master did not like the everlasting restraints of
Versailles. Some malicious people said he preferred Paris on account
of Mademoiselle Verieres, the actress. God knows. There are always
people who can ascribe the worst motives to the simplest actions.

Francezka and Gaston Cheverny spent the winter at the Hotel
Kirkpatrick. Madame Riano had gone to England then, but only made a
brief stay. From thence she went to Rome, and Monsieur Voltaire
declared it was for the purpose of getting the pope to put himself at
the head of the Kirkpatricks to march to London and wrest the throne
of England from the Hanoverians for Prince Charles Edward Stuart. At
all events, news reached Paris that Madame Riano had fallen out
violently with the Holy Father, as she had done with the Kings of
France, of Spain and of England, and was breathing out fire and
slaughter against the Holy See.

It was to be expected that Francezka and Gaston should live with
splendor and gaiety at the Hotel Kirkpatrick, and they did; this, too,
upon a scale that probably made Francezka's father, the prudent old
Scotchman, writhe in his grave. Balls, masques, concerts and ballets
followed each other with dazzling swiftness. A temporary theater was
built in the garden on the site of the one where Francezka had made
her first dramatic adventure with the baker's boy, under the
management of Jacques Haret. Here were given the best comedies of the
day, with Francezka as the star. Monsieur Voltaire was often in the
cast, and some of his own masterpieces were given at this theater for
the first time.

Nor was he the only wit who frequented the Hotel Kirkpatrick. Not only
wits, but scholars like Maupertius, the two Bernouillis, many poets
and literary men, Cardinal de Polignac and Marquis de Beauvau,
soldiers like Marshal Count de Belle-Isle, his brother the Chevalier,
the Prince de Soubise, the Prince de Clermont, and others, made
Francezka's saloon shine. She was the extreme of the mode and her
saloon became the rage. Monsieur Voltaire went about threatening the
ladies, that if they did not look out, Madame Cheverny would bring
virtue into fashion. But there was no panic among them, although it
can not be denied that Francezka was admired for her virtue as for her
wit, and, with such a fortune as hers, neither would be likely to
remain under an ecl