Nevertheless, there were in Madame de Genlis’s system, as Lady Sarah Napier admits, sufficient “perfections” to make it worth our while to study it in a certain detail, in the hope of finding something in it to suit our own educational needs. The books in which she expounds her system (_Adèle et Théodore_, _Leçons d’une Gouvernante_, etc.) exercised a tremendous influence on a generation of parents much more interested in the education of their children than their present-day successors. We learn from Lady Sophia Fitzgerald that her mother, the Duchess of Leinster, admired “all the writings of Madame de Genlis to the greatest degree,” and was often bantered by Lord Edward (who little suspected in what a relation he was one day to stand to the educationist) over her _engouement_. (He, for his part, pronounced her _Plans d’Education_ all perfect nonsense). Lady Sophia, herself, began to re-read _Adèle et Théodore_ (which she had first read about eight or nine years previously) after her brother, Lord Edward, brought home Pamela as his bride. She pays a pretty compliment to Pamela while she makes a record of this intention of hers in her diary: “Knowing what a charming, engaging little creature Lady Edward is, I think I shall be more interested than ever, and give more attention to all she [_i.e._ Madame de Genlis] says upon Education.” In 1777 Madame de Genlis, who had been attached since 1770 to the Court of the Duchess of Chartres, at the _Palais Royal_, as Lady in Waiting, was appointed Governess of the little twin Princesses, who had recently been born to the Duke and Duchess. She insisted on taking charge of them practically from their birth—contrary to the usual custom which left the care of baby princesses to a _Sous-Gouvernante_, and in order that she might develop unhampered the system of education which she had devised for them she stipulated that they should be removed from the _Palais Royal_, and a special pavilion built for them in the garden of the Convent of Bellechasse, on plans drawn up by herself.