At his return to Paris he wished to amuse
Diderot with the story, and by this means the Coterie d'Holbachique
learned that I was seriously resolved to pass the winter at the
Hermitage. This perseverance, of which they had not imagined me to
be capable, disconcerted them, and, until they could think of some
other means of making my residence disagreeable to me, they sent back,
by means of Diderot, the same De Leyre, who, though at first he had
thought my precautions quite natural, now pretended to discover that
they were inconsistent with my principles, and styled them more than
ridiculous in his letters, in which he overwhelmed me with
pleasantries sufficiently bitter and satirical to offend me had I been
the least disposed to take offense. But at that time being full of
tender and affectionate sentiments, and not suspectible of any
other, I perceived in his biting sarcasms nothing more than a jest,
and believed him only jocose when others would have thought him mad.
By my care and vigilance I guarded the garden so well, that,
although there had been but little fruit that year the produce was
triple that of the preceding years; it is true, I spared no pains to
preserve it, and I went so far as to escort what I sent to the
Chevrette and to Epinay, and to carry baskets of it myself. The "aunt"
and I carried one of these, which was so heavy that we were obliged to
rest at every dozen steps, and when we arrived with it we were quite
wet with perspiration.
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