She found the earnest desire of pouring forth her feelings.

Melancholy was her rigid muse.

She began to write, in order to console herself in the nurture of her own thoughts.

Without any intention of becoming an authoress, she acquired by these solitary trials that eloquence with which she subsequently animated her friends.
IX.
Thus gradually ripened this patient and resolute mind, working on towards its destiny, when she believed she had found the man of the olden time of whom she had so long dreamed.

This man was Roland de la Platiere.
He was introduced to her by one of her early friends, married at Amiens, where Roland then carried on the functions of inspector of manufactures.
"You will receive this letter," wrote her friend, "by the hand of the philosopher of whom I have spoken to you already, M.Roland, an enlightened man, of antique manners; without reproach, except for his passion for the ancients, his contempt of his age, and his too high estimation of his own virtue.