neglected to cultivate interest with the Pope.

One poet had the audacity to put up Madame de Genlis' honour at the
Exchange for a dollar; the ladies of the Directory exclaimed against
this; the Countess herself said nothing: she despised the exaggeration
which nobody could credit. In truth, Madame de Genlis was quite as good
as the particular Queen, whose modesty was only to fall before the
millions of a Cardinal-Duke.

Mirabeau boasted, in one of his letters, that he had communicated
his own tenderness to the charming tigress; but Mirubeau was a vain,
good-for-nothing coxcomb, and the boudoir on four wheels which he
presented as the theatre of his triumph, was a horrible invention. The
proof is, that Madame de Genlis says nothing whatever about it in her
Memoirs. Posterity should be just towards the illustrious Countess, and
accept, as sincere, her revelations. Let us, then, consider her as the
most virtuous of women; as the least arrogant; the most sensible; the
most learned; for all, in fine, that she desired to appear; for Madame
de Genlis never said what was untrue; she solemnly declares so.

Madame de Genlis had a talent that was very dear to her, but the title
of a good housewife was that she coveted above all the rest. I can never
forget the following circumstance, exemplifying the _naîf_ vanity
of the pretension to be without pretension, which the noble lady
sometimes assumed. I was anxious to see this celebrated person, and
wrote to ask the favour of a brief interview. She appointed the
following day. At twelve o'clock I presented myself;--Madame de Genlis
was writing; she laid down her pen, and obligingly offered me a seat,
then said--"Allow me, sir, to finish my _pot an feu_; above being a
woman of letters, I value myself as a good housewife." And the Countess