But if her marriage was not an ideal one, it does not appear that
it was unhappy. Perhaps her bourgeois birth and associations
saved her youth from the domestic complications which were so far
the rule in the great world as to have, in a measure, its
sanction. At all events her life was apparently free from the
shadows that rested upon many of her contemporaries.

"Her character was a singular one," writes Marmontel, who lived
for ten years in her house, "and difficult to understand or
paint, because it was all in half-tints and shades; very decided
nevertheless, but without the striking traits by which one's
nature distinguishes and defines itself. She was kind, but had
little sensibility; charitable, without any of the charms of
benevolence; eager to aid the unhappy, but without seeing them,
for fear of being moved; a sure, faithful, even officious friend,
but timid and anxious in serving others, lest she should
compromise her credit or her repose. She was simple in her
taste, her dress, and her furniture, but choice in her
simplicity, having the refinements and delicacies of luxury, but
nothing of its ostentation nor its vanity; modest in her air,
carriage, and manners, but with a touch of pride, and even a
little vainglory. Nothing flattered her more than her
intercourse with the great. At their houses she rarely saw them,
--indeed she was not at her ease there,--but she knew how to
attract them to her own by a coquetry subtly flattering; and in
the easy, natural, half-respectful and half-familiar air with
which she received them, I thought I saw remarkable address."

In a woman of less tact and penetration, this curious vein of