d'Holbach, but M. de Chenonceaux,
then one of the administrators of the Hotel Dieu, who procured this
place for her father. I had so totally forgotten the circumstance, and
the idea of M. d'Holbach's having done it was so strong in my mind
that I would have sworn it had been him.
Much about the same time I received a visit I little expected,
although it was from a very old acquaintance. My friend Venture,
accompanied by another man, came upon me one morning by surprise. What
a change did I discover in his person! Instead of his former
gracefulness, he appeared sottish and vulgar, which made me
extremely reserved with him. My eyes deceived me, or either debauchery
had stupefied his mind, or all his first splendor was the effect of
his youth which was past. I saw him almost with indifference, and we
parted rather coolly. But when he was gone, the remembrance of our
former connection so strongly called to my recollection that of my
younger days, so charmingly, so prudently dedicated to that angelic
woman (Madam de Warrens) who was not much less changed than himself;
the little anecdotes of that happy time, the romantic day at Toune
passed with so much innocence and enjoyment between those two charming
girls, from whom a kiss of the hand was the only favor, and which,
notwithstanding its being so trifling, had left me such lively,
affecting and lasting regrets; and the ravishing delirium of a young
heart, which I had just felt in all its force, and of which I
thought the season forever past for me.
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