secrecy.

As the child who inherited the rather formidable name of Anne
Theresa de Marguenat de Coucelles was born during the last days
of the Hotel de Rambouillet, she doubtless cherished many
illusions regarding this famous salon. Its influence was more or
less apparent when the time came to open one of her own. Her
father was a man of feeble intellect, who died early; but her
mother, a woman more noted for beauty than for decorum, was
afterward married to Bachaumont, a well-known bel esprit, who
appreciated the gifts of the young girl, and brought her within a
circle of wits who did far more towards forming her impressible
mind than her light and frivolous mother had done. She was still
very young when she became the wife of the Marquis de Lambert, an
officer of distinction, to whose interests she devoted her
talents and her ample fortune. The exquisitely decorated Hotel
Lambert, on the Ile Saint Louis, still retains much of its old
splendor, though the finest masterpieces of Lebrun and Lesueur
which ornamented its walls have found their way to the Louvre.
"It is a home made for a sovereign who would be a philosopher,"
wrote Voltaire to Frederick the Great. In these magnificent
salons, Mme. de Lambert, surrounded by every luxury that wealth
and taste could furnish, entertained a distinguished company.
She carried her lavish hospitalities also to Luxembourg, where
she adorned the position of her husband, who was governor of that
province for a short period before his death in 1686. After this
event, she was absorbed for some years in settling his affairs,
which were left in great disorder, and in protecting the fortunes
of her two children. This involved her in long and vexatious
lawsuits which she seems to have conducted with admirable