To complete my timidity, I
perceived I had not the good fortune to please Madam de Breil; she not
only never but even rejected, my services; and having twice found me
in her antechamber, asked me, dryly, "If I had nothing to do?" I was
obliged, therefore, to renounce this dear antechamber; as first it
caused me some uneasiness, but other things intervening, I presently
thought no more of it.
The disdain of Madam de Breil was fully compensated by the
kindness of her father-in-law, who at length began to think of me. The
evening after the entertainment, I have already mentioned, he had a
conversation with me that lasted half an hour, which appeared to
satisfy him, and absolutely enchanted me. This good man had less sense
than Madam de Vercellis, but possessed more feeling; I therefore
succeeded much better with him. He bade me attach myself to his son,
the Abbe Gauvon, who had an esteem for me, which, if I took care to
cultivate, might be serviceable in furnishing me with what was
necessary to complete their views for my future establishment. The
next morning I flew to M. the abbe, who did not receive me as a
servant, but made me sit by his fireside, and questioned me with great
affability. He soon found that my education, which had attempted
many things, had completed none; but observing that I understood
something of Latin, he undertook to teach me more, and appointed me to
attend him every morning. Thus, by one of the whimsicalities which
have marked the whole course of my life, at once above and below my
natural situation, I was pupil and in footman in the same house; and
though in servitude, had a preceptor whose birth entitled him to
supply that place only to the children of kings.
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