"I am much pained, madame," said he, on entering, "that mademoiselle Guimard has communicated with so little address what I wished to say to you." "Prince, I think you would have done better to have been the bearer of your own message. You know my station here, and would not have ridiculed me as she has done." M. de Soubise, much puzzled to know what she had said, asked me the question. "Why," I replied, "she said, that if I would follow your counsels, you would pay me for my condescension." "Ah! madame," he exclaimed, "she has completely murdered me. I only charged her to offer my services to you, and throw myself at your feet, as I do now." "Rise, prince, I do not accuse you of such folly, and promise not to mention it: it is necessary, however, that you should know I have but one part to play here, that of pleasing the king. Any other character will not suit me. Honor me with your friendship, and accept mine in return. I cannot, must not, have any other union with you." Thus terminated this interview; it did not suit me to give the prince de Soubise any hopes. He and all the Rohans would have lived on it; they would have turned my confidence to their gain, and as they were for the most part sharpers, or something akin to it, my name would soon have been mixed up with some dirty transaction. His family was a hydra of avarice, and would alone have swallowed up all the wealth of France. If the king had taken one of the Rohan family for his mistress, I believe that the finance department would not have sufficed for one year's expenditure of this prodigal family. I had no objection to the prince de Soubise coming to supper with me, but I did not feel myself disposed to give him any control over my mind. I should have been ill-guided by a man who had no government of himself.