“Thémire has much wit, a sensitive heart, a kindly disposition, an interesting face. Her education has imprinted in her soul a piety so veritable that it has become a sentiment, and one which serves her to regulate all others. Thémire loves God, and next to him all that is lovable; she knows how to bring solid matters and agreeable ones into harmony. She occupies herself with each in turn, and sometimes combines them. Her virtues have, so to say, the germ and pungency of passions. To admirable purity of manners she joins extreme sensibility; to the greatest modesty a desire to please which would by itself achieve its object. Her discernment makes her penetrate all caprices and understand all follies; her goodness and charity make her endure them without impatience, and rarely permit her to laugh at them.... The respect she inspires is based rather on her virtues than her dignity. One has entire freedom of mind when with her; one owes it to the penetration and delicacy of hers. She understands so promptly and so subtly that it is easy to communicate to her whatever ideas one desires, without infringing the circumspection demanded by her rank. One forgets, on seeing Thémire, that there can be other grandeurs, other elevations, than those of her sentiments; one almost yields to the illusion that there is no interval between her and us than that of the superiority of her merits; but a fatal awakening acquaints us that this Thémire, so perfect, so amiable, is the Queen.” No one was a more faithful friend than Marie Leczinska. The little circle amidst which she lived displayed as much affection as respect for her. After supper she went almost every evening to the apartment of the Duchess de Luynes, her lady of honor. There she met, besides the Duke and Duchess, Cardinal de Luynes, the Duke and Duchess de Chevreuse, and President Hénault. This was a time of recreation and pleasant talk. The learned president shone there by his wit. One day he offered the Queen the manuscript of his _Abrégé chronologique_. She returned it with the following words: “I think that M. Hénault, who says so many things in so few words, can hardly like the language of women who talk so much to say so little.” In lieu of signature, she had written: _Devinez qui_ (Guess who). The gallant author replied at once:-- “Ces mots tracés par une main divine Ne peuvent me causer que trouble et qu’embarras. C’est trop oser si mon cœur les devine; C’est être ingrat que ne deviner pas.”[59] Another time, Fontenelle, then ninety-two years old, had addressed these verses to the President:-- “Il fallait n’être vieux qu’à Sparte, Disent les anciens écrits. Grand Dieu! combien je m’en écarte, Moi qui suis si vieux dans Paris. O Sparte! ô Sparte! hélas! qu’êtes-vous devenue? Vous saviez tout le prix d’une tête chenue.