They had been married seven years, and in the first years of their union the Princess had borne him a son and a daughter.

The stern morals and manners, the dark and ungainly appearance, of the husband, were little likely to please the brilliant and fascinating young woman, who had been educated in the south (she was connected with the ducal house of S---), who had passed two years at Paris under the guardianship of Mesdames the daughters of His Most Christian Majesty, and who was the life and soul of the Court of X---, the gayest of the gay, the idol of her august father-in-law, and, indeed, of the whole Court.

She was not beautiful, but charming; not witty, but charming, too, in her conversation as in her person.

She was extravagant beyond all measure; so false, that you could not trust her; but her very weaknesses were more winning than the virtues of other women, her selfishness more delightful than others' generosity.

I never knew a woman whose faults made her so attractive.