"Of course, this was but lightly said, yet that did not prevent her from taking action at once; for, upon the very next morning, she went with her mother to the Quai des Orfèvres, and there bought, at the shop of Monsieur Strass, earrings of false diamonds, and next day she did not hesitate to wear these in her ears. "As she lived in a shop, the neighbours were not slow in paying her compliments, and in asking her who had presented these jewels to her. "With downcast eyes she answered softly, 'It is Monsieur Greuze who has given them to me.' "'You are married, then?' "'Ah, no;' but this was said in a way that implied that secretly she had married me. My friends began at once to congratulate me, but I assured them there was nothing more false than {23} the news they had heard, and that I had not money enough to enable me to marry. "Outraged at such effrontery, I did not return to Mademoiselle Babuty any more. I lived at that time in _le faubourg Saint Germain_, _rue du Petit Lion_, in an hotel of furnished rooms called _l'Hôtel des Vignes_. Three days passed, during which I heard no more of the matter, and I was already thinking of other affairs, when one fine day she came knocking at my door accompanied by her little servant girl. I took no notice of the knocks, but she knew I was there, and she attacked my door with her hands and feet like a veritable fury. Then, to prevent a public scandal, I opened my door, and she threw herself into my room all in tears. She said to me: "'I have done wrong, Monsieur Greuze, but it is love which has misled me. It is the attachment I have for you which has made me resort to such a stratagem. My life is in your hands.' Then she flung herself at my knees, and said she would not rise again until I had promised that I would marry her. She took my two hands in hers, and they were wet with tears. I pitied her, and I promised all she wished. "We were not married until two years afterwards, in the parish of Saint Medard--which was not her parish--for fear of the pleasantries that would have been made, seeing that she had said that we were already married. I commenced housekeeping with twenty-six livres the day after our wedding." {24} During the first seven years of their married life they had three children. One of the children died, leaving the artist and his wife with two daughters. Concerning these seven years no complaint is made about the conduct of Madame Greuze; but from that time it would be difficult to find a more unhappy household than that of Greuze. His wife was a continual torment, hindering him in his work, putting his life on a lower level, and making his home intolerable. Diderot even blamed her for the infelicity of his Academy picture, and Greuze himself suspected her of having poisoned the minds of the members of the Academy against him.