The Count de Vergennes had asked M. Genest, chief clerk at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, to receive his old friend the Chevalier in his own house, and manage him as best he could. Upon hearing of his arrival, the Queen sent word to Genest that he was to bring the Chevalier to her. Genest, having informed the minister of her Majesty’s commands, received instructions to accompany the Chevalier; but the count having previously had a few minutes’ audience of the Queen, she left the room with him, and finding Genest in the adjoining apartment, her Majesty told him, smiling, that she was sorry to have given him any trouble, the few words the count had just said to her having for ever cured her of her curiosity.[330] And yet she did not remain unmindful of him. When D’Eon sought to put off the evil hour of his transformation by pitiably pleading that she had no suitable clothes in which to appear, even the Queen’s eagerness for novelty and amusement seemed to conspire against her. Her Majesty seized upon so exceptional an opportunity ‘for exercising the nobility of her soul and the generosity of her heart, in causing Mademoiselle Bertin, one of her ladies-in-waiting, to complete an outfit which would have sufficed for any four girls of the royal house of St. Cyr.’[331] D’Eon was delighted at the respite afforded by the time required for preparing a trousseau in accordance with the Queen’s commands, and he made the most of it by paying a visit to his mother, whom he had not seen for many years. In acknowledging the receipt of the King’s order of August 19, the Chevalier informed the minister that the few articles of female attire he had by him were quite unsuitable for making his appearance at Versailles. Mademoiselle Bertin had consequently undertaken to procure the clothing necessary for his new condition of life, and to turn him into a fairly modest and obedient woman; and to her, after Heaven, the King, and his ministers, would belong the greatest merit in connection with his miraculous conversion. His earnest desire to appear irreproachable in the eyes of the King and of the Counts de Vergennes and de Maurepas, sufficed to endue him with the strength required to overcome himself, and adopt a sweetness of disposition in conformity with the new existence into which he was forced.[332] This letter was signed, ‘The Chevalier D’Eon for a little while longer.’ [Sidenote: RECEPTION AT TONNERRE.]