two or three touches--a lie "formed by the hand of Love," as
anthology puts it--a nose with expressive nostrils, an air of
childlike candour, and a look seductive to intoxication. A bold
yet shrinking Venus, a Hebe yet a Bacchante. With much grace
Voltaire says:

"Madame:

"M. de la Borde tells me that you have ordered him
to kiss me on both cheeks for you:

"What! Two kisses at life's end
What a passport to send me!
Two is one too much, Adorable Nymph;
I should die of pleasure at the first.

"He showed me your portrait, and be not offended,
Madame, when I tell you that I have taken the liberty
of giving that the two kisses."

Perhaps Voltaire would not have written this letter, had he not
read the one written by the King to the Duc de Choiseul, who
refused to pay court to the left-hand queen:

"My Cousin,

"The discontent which your acts cause me forces me to
exile you to Chanteloup, where you will take yourself
within twenty-four hours. I would have sent you farther
away were it not for the particular esteem in which I