Ninon had no rancor in her heart toward any one, much less against an
unsuccessful suitor, hence she only laughed at Chapelle's effusions
and all Paris laughed with her. The truth is, la Rochefoucauld had
impressed her mind with that famous saying of his: "Old age is the
hell of women," and not fearing any hell, reference to her age neither
alarmed her, nor caused the slightest flurry in her peaceful life. She
was too philosophical to regret the loss of what she did not esteem of
any value, and saw Chapelle slipping away from her with tranquillity
of mind. It was only during moments of gayety when she abandoned
herself to the play of an imagination always laughing and fertile,
that she repeated the sacrilegious wish of the pious king of Aragon,
who wished that he had been present at the moment of creation, when,
among the suggestions he could have given Providence, he would have
advised him to put the wrinkles of old age where the gods of Pagandom
had located the feeble spot in Achilles.

If Ninon ever felt a pang on account of the ungenerous conduct of
Chapelle, his disciple, the illustrious Abbé de Chaulieu, the Anacreon
of the age, who was called, when he made his entrée into the world of
letters "the poet of good fellowship," more than compensated her for
the injury done by his pastor. The Abbé was the Prior of Fontenay,
whither Ninon frequently accompanied Madame the Duchess de Bouillon
and the Chevalier d'Orléans. The Duchess loved to joke at the expense
of the Abbé, and twit him about his wasted talents, which were more
adapted to love than to his present situation. It may be that the
worthy Abbé, after thinking over seriously what was intended to be a
mere pleasantry, concluded that Madame the Duchess was right, and that
he possessed some talent in the direction of love. However that might,
have been, it is certain that he had cast an observant and critical
eye on Ninon, and he now openly paid her court, not unsuccessfully it