While waiting for the money that was owing to him he endeavoured to earn his living—for he must live—by some other means. In the intervals between the receptions to which he was invited, and at which he mixed in the best society, he occupied himself with every kind of business. Once he traced a young man who had run away to London; another time he assisted by his support and letters of introduction a countryman of his, the Sieur Petit, who wished to start a business house in the city. Shortly afterwards he devoted his attention to the sale of an estate, the marquisate of Cailly, in Normandy, which the Duchesse de Montmorency-Boutteville wished to part with, and for which d’Eon hoped to find a purchaser among his English friends. His intercourse with the duchess was quite of a friendly character, the latter writing to him, on March 30, 1788, that she kept a room ready for him in her house at Petit-Montreuil when he should return to France. A few months later d’Eon wrote to Barantin, the Keeper of the Seals, offering for sale a number of valuable manuscripts collected by himself during the course of his chequered life. The nucleus of the collection consisted of a valuable series of the Maréchal de Vauban’s papers, for which d’Eon asked so high a price that in 1791 he had not yet found a purchaser. He had somewhat exaggerated notions as to the interest and importance of the manuscripts. But the correspondence of the versatile Chevalière was not connected only with money matters, for d’Eon had too complex a nature not to rise on occasion above material questions. Even during the time that he was struggling against misfortune he daily exchanged most humorous letters with all sorts of people. Some items of his correspondence were charming; it may suffice to quote that of the Abbé Sabatier de Castres, attached to the household of the Dauphin. It is not perhaps free from affectation, but is a perfect example of the style used between themselves by the most polite society of the time: