Disappointed in her hopes of being received into the household of the Duchess of La Ferté, or of obtaining an establishment elsewhere through her means, De Launay accepted an offer from the Duchess of Maine, to whom she had been introduced. This defection, as it was deemed, threw her late patroness into a paroxysm of rage. Her new situation was an unenviable one. She filled the place of a lady’s maid, who had retired; her apartment was a wretched low closet, in which it was impossible to move about in an upright posture, and which had neither chimney nor window; and her chief occupation was to make up shifts, in which she confesses herself to have been so inexpert, that, when the duchess came to put on some of her handywork, she found in the arm what ought to have been in the elbow. By the duchess, and all the upper classes in the house, she was utterly neglected, as a mere drudge; by those of her own class, she was envied, hated, and persecuted, for her natural superiority over them. Life at last became a burthen, and there was a moment when she seriously meditated the commission of suicide. A happy chance lifted her at once from this slough of despond into her proper sphere. There was an exceedingly beautiful female, named Testard, who laid claim to supernatural powers; by desire of the Duke of Orleans, Fontenelle had visited her, and, prejudiced by her charms, is said to have manifested too much faith in her. This folly of a philosopher, who was not remarkable for believing too much, excited a loud clamour. “You had better write to M. de Fontenelle, to let him hear what every body is talking against him about Testard,” said the duchess one day to her despised attendant. De Launay did write; and her letter, though brief, was such a finished composition, such an admirable mixture of delicate reproof and delicate praise, that, in the course of a few days, innumerable copies of it were spread throughout Paris. She, meanwhile, was unconscious of the effect which she had produced, till she was apprised of it by the duchess’s visitors, who overwhelmed her with compliments and attentions.