talent is called into requisition. Now it is a message to
Louvois or the king, now a turn to be adroitly given to public
opinion, now the selection of a perfume or a pair of gloves.
"She watches everything, thinks of everything, combines, visits,
talks, writes, sends counsels, procures advice, baffles
intrigues, is always in the breach, and renders more service by
her single efforts than all the envoys avowed or secret whom the
Duchesse keeps in France." Nor is the value of these services
unrecognized. "Have I told you," wrote Mme. de Sevigne to her
daughter, "that Mme. de Savoie has sent a hundred ells of the
finest velvet in the world to Mme. de La Fayette, and a hundred
ells of satin to line it, and two days ago her portrait,
surrounded with diamonds, which is worth three hundred louis?"

The practical side of Mme. de La Fayette's character was
remarkable in a woman of so fine a sensibility and so rare a
genius. Her friends often sought her counsel; and it was through
her familiarity with legal technicalities that La Rochefoucauld
was enabled to save his fortune, which he was at one time in
danger of losing. In clear insight, profound judgment, and
knowledge of affairs, she was scarcely, if at all, surpassed by
Mme. de Maintenon, the feminine diplomatist par excellence of her
time, though her field of action was less broad and conspicuous.
But her love of consideration was not so dominant and her
ambition not so active. It was one of her theories that people
should live without ambition as well as without passion. "It is
sufficient to exist," she said. Her energy when occasion called
for it does not quite accord with this passive philosophy, and
suggests at least a vast reserved force; but if she directed her
efforts toward definite ends it was usually to serve other