sician, from marrying whom she narrowly escaped; then a jeweler, and
many others. The merits of these gentlemen--particularly those of the
energetic butcher---were warmly commended by their female friends, who,
in France, are brokers in this business on a very extensive scale. It is
a unique proof of her ascendancy over every person near her that the
letters which her father received, requesting his permission to address
her, were submitted by him to her to draft the answer he was to send. So
she placed herself _loco parentis_, and wrote the most paternal letters
of refusal; all of which her father dutifully copied and sent, with many
a pang when she let riches and rank pass by her. The suitors were
dismissed, one and all, and she resumed her books and studies.

Her mother died in 1775. She became the mistress of the house. Her
father formed disreputable connections. Late in that year her future
husband, Roland de la Platiere, presented himself, with a letter from a
friend of her girlhood. He was forty years old; he was a student; his
form was awkward and his manners were stiff; his morals were
irreproachable, his disposition was exacting, but his ability was great.
He was capable of instructing even her on many subjects, and they became
well acquainted by the elective sympathy of scholarship. She became the
critic and depositary of his manuscripts. Finally, one day, after asking
leave, in her father's presence the worthy man actually kissed her, on
his departure for Italy. Her father, sinking lower and lower, squandered
her little fortune of about three thousand dollars, wasted his own
business, and then treated her with brutality. Her only amusement at
this time was playing the violin, accompanied by an old priest who
tortured a bass viol, while her uncle made a flute complain.

Finally, after an acquaintance of five years, Roland, by letter to her
father, proposed marriage. The purity of Roland's life was esteemed by
Phlipon such a reproach to his own dissoluteness that he revenged
himself by an insulting refusal. He then made his daughter's life at
home so insupportable that she took lodgings in a convent. She was
visited there by Roland, and they were finally married, without again
consulting her father. During the year next succeeding their marriage
they remained at Paris. From Paris they went to Amiens, and lived there
four years, where her daughter was born. She assisted her husband in the
preparation of several