sought for in vain elsewhere. These are memoirs for the history of
France, which would scarcely be thought of in any other country.

One day, whilst we were still upon the very best terms, he received me so
coldly and in a manner so different from that which was customary to him,
that after having given him an opportunity to explain, and even having
begged him to do it, I left his house with a resolution, in which I have
persevered, never to return to it again; for I am seldom seen where I
have been once ill received, and in this case there was no Diderot who
pleaded for M. de Joinville. I vainly endeavored to discover what I had
done to offend him; I could not recollect a circumstance at which he
could possibly have taken offence. I was certain of never having spoken
of him or his in any other than in the most honorable manner; for he had
acquired my friendship, and besides my having nothing but favorable
things to say of him, my most inviolable maxim has been that of never
speaking but in an honorable manner of the houses I frequented.

At length, by continually ruminating. I formed the following conjecture:
the last time we had seen each other, I had supped with him at the
apartment of some girls of his acquaintance, in company with two or three
clerks in the office of foreign affairs, very amiable men, and who had
neither the manner nor appearance of libertines; and on my part, I can
assert that the whole evening passed in making melancholy reflections on
the wretched fate of the creatures with whom we were. I did not pay
anything, as M. de Joinville gave the supper, nor did I make the girls
the least present, because I gave them not the opportunity I had done to
the padoana of establishing a claim to the trifle I might have offered,
We all came away together, cheerfully and upon very good terms. Without
having made a second visit to the girls, I went three or four days
afterwards to dine with M. de Joinville, whom I had not seen during that