‘That’s true, she could never have possessed a pleasing face; her mouth and nose were ugly. But her magnificent eyes marvellously expressed everything that went on successively in that brain so rich in lofty or virile thoughts; her hands were beautifully shaped, hence the care she took to direct attention to them by her habit of constantly fingering a branch of poplar provided with a few leaves, the shaking of which, according to herself, was the necessary accompaniment to her words. Her conversation was simply dazzling; she discussed every subject with a marvellous facility; she expressed herself in an animated, brilliant and poetical manner. The larger her audience, the loftier did her genius soar. She was only at her ease with men capable of judging her, but on such occasions she was truly great. ‘Well, all those titles to admiration were soon made light of. The human mind, by an inevitable reaction, passes from enthusiasm to carping. In a short time people laid stress on Mme. de Staël’s defects; her brilliant qualities were no longer taken into account. In general conversation, it was said, she showed herself more anxious to dazzle than to please; her monologues reduced her interlocutors to the roles of complacent listeners; when she addressed a question to some one, she rarely waited for the answer. She was fond of society in which she was calculated to shine, but she did not care for the society of women, which, as a rule, affords fewer resources to an intellect like hers than that of men. And the women have not forgiven her, however much her genius may have conferred honour on her own sex. ‘Hence, she gradually saw a diminution of her celebrity, a celebrity which had become necessary to her, and which, nevertheless, was not to her the road to happiness. She constantly regretted France, from which she was irrevocably exiled, in consequence of her opposition to the government; she had designated Bonaparte as Robespierre on horseback. It may therefore be said that she served her own cause when endeavouring to overtopple the obstacle to her return to Paris; and on the task she set herself, she brought to bear all the energy of a genius, stimulated by the hatred of a woman.