"Well!" she exclaimed.

"Yes," replied Madame de Choiseul; "I am loved; _she_ is going to be
dismissed. He has given me his royal word on it."

A burst of joy resounded through the cabinet. Quesnai was, as we know,
the friend of Madame de Pompadour; but he was at the same time the friend
of Madame d'Estrade. M. d'Argenson imagined that in this revolution he
would remain neuter at least, but he was mistaken.

"Doctor," said he, "nothing changes for you; we trust that you will
remain with us."

"Monsieur le Comte," coldly replied Quesnai, rising from his seat, "I
have been attached to Madame de Pompadour in her prosperity, and I shall
remain so in her disgrace;" and so saying he left the room.

This Quesnai, of whom we have just made mention, was a man of uncouth and
rustic manners, a true Danubian peasant. He inhabited a little _entresol_
above the apartments of Madame de Pompadour at Versailles, where he would
pass the whole of his time absorbed in schemes of political economy.
Quesnai, however, did not want for friends, as he could boast of the
esteem of all the most illustrious philosophers of the day. For those
persons who did not go to court would come once a month to dine with the
court physician. Marmontel, in his _Memoirs_, relates that he has dined
there in company with Diderot, D'Alembert, Duclos, Helvetius, Turgot, and
Buffon,--a goodly array of intellect. Thus on the ground floor they
deliberated on peace and war, on the choice of ministers, the suppression
of the Jesuits, the exile of the parliament, and the future destinies of
France; while above stairs those who had not power, but who possessed
ideas, labored unwittingly at the future destinies of the world. What was
concocted in the _rez-de-chaussee_ was demolished in the _entresol_. It
would frequently happen, too, that Madame de Pompadour who could not
receive the guests of Quesnai in her own apartments, would ascend to
those of her physician to see and chat with them.

Every Sunday morning Madame de Pompadour received at her toilet all the
artists, literary men, and great personages of the court, who had the
_entree_ of her apartments. Marmontel relates that on the arrival of
Duclos and De Bernis, who never missed a single Sunday, she would say to
the first, with a light air, "_Bon jour, Duclos_;" to the second, with an
air and voice more amiable, "_Bon jour_, abbe:" accompanying her words
occasionally with a little tap on his cheek. Artists an