“I remember, on one occasion, to have felt a chill come over me upon hearing him begin an anecdote in these words. ‘I was one evening at Madame de Boissière’s, when who should enter but Madame Geoffrin’—Why, the very name is sufficient to bring back the whole of the eighteenth century, with its strange mixture of elegant _badinage_ and fierce philosophy, its motley crowd of rude encyclopedists and elegant _marquis à talons rouges_! “Talleyrand had the good fortune to enter the world of fashion under the very best auspices. It was at the house of the Marquis de Brignolé, one Saturday evening in the year 1772, that he made his _début_ on leaving the _séminaire_. It was a memorable event in his life, of quite as great importance as any of those which have succeeded it, and he felt far more emotion upon this occasion than he did when, some thirty years later, he stepped forward to receive the key of _grand chambellan_, or the _portefeuille_ of the _affaires étrangères_. Can you not fancy him as he entered that old aristocratic saloon in his _petit collet_? (the coquettish distinction, now gone by, of the candidate for clerical honours.) He was a remarkably handsome youth, and his fresh complexion and long golden hair must have appeared to great advantage among the crowd of withered _savans_ in powdered wigs, with which the _salon_ was already filled. To hear him relate the adventures of this his first _soirée_ is like reading a page torn from some old memoir, and can seldom fail to inspire a feeling of interest almost akin to awe in the mind of the listener. He tells a story, too, with peculiar gusto, and seems to grow young again in the memory of the circumstances which marked his first appearance in society. “Madame de Brignolé was one of the most witty clever women at that time in Paris, and held a peculiar position in society, from having had the address to shake off the trammels of caste and clique, and to avow herself the admirer of all that was admirable, whether it proceeded from this set or from that, from the daring _philosophe_ or shrinking _vrai-croyant_. She had thus succeeded in gathering together in harmony and good-will elements the most discordant in themselves, and which could be made to amalgamate nowhere save beneath her roof—Madame du Deffand and Madame Geoffrin, Voltaire and Jean Jacques.