out being known. I dared not propose any scheme then, for
fear it should not succeed; but, two days after, I talked to her surgeon
about the art, which some beggars practise, of counterfeiting sores, and
altering their features. He said that was easy enough. I let the thing
drop, and, after an interval of some minutes, I said, "If one could
change one's features, one might have great diversion at the opera, or at
balls. What alterations would it be necessary to make in me, now, to
render it impossible to recognise me?"--"In the first place," said he,
"you must alter the colour of your hair, then you must have a false nose,
and put a spot on some part of your face, or a wart, or a few hairs." I
laughed, and said, "Help me to contrive this for the next ball; I have
not been to one for twenty years; but I am dying to puzzle somebody, and
to tell him things which no one but I can tell him. I shall come home,
and go to bed, in a quarter of an hour."--"I must take the measure of
your nose," said he; "or do you take it with wax, and I will have a nose
made: you can get a flaxen or brown wig." I repeated to Madame what the
surgeon had told me: she was delighted at it. I took the measure of her
nose, and of my own, and carried them to the surgeon, who, in two days,
gave me the two noses, and a wart, which Madame stuck under her left eye,
and some paint for the eyebrows. The noses were most delicately made, of
a bladder, I think, and these, with the ether disguises, rendered it
impossible to recognize the face, and yet did not produce any shocking
appearance. All this being accomplished, nothing remained but to give
notice to the fortuneteller; we waited for a little excursion to Paris,
which Madame was to take, to look at her house. I then got a person,
with whom I had no connection, to speak to a waiting-woman of the
Duchesse de Ruffec, to obtain an interview with the woman. She made some
difficulty, on account of the Police; but we promised secrecy, and
appointed the place of meeting. Nothing could be more contrary to Madame
de Pompadour's character, which was one of extreme timidity, than to
engage in such an adventure. But her curiosity was raised to the highest
pitch, and, moreover, everything was so well arranged that there was not
the slightest risk. Madame had let M. de Gontaut, and her valet de
chambre, into the secret. The latter had hired two rooms for his niece,
who was then ill, at Versailles, near Madam