Satisfied with having made a rough sketch of my plan, I returned
to the situations in detail, which I had marked out; and from the
arrangement I gave them resulted the first two parts of the Eloisa,
which I finished during the winter with inexpressible pleasure,
procuring gilt paper to receive a fair copy of them, azure and
silver powder to dry the writing, and blue narrow ribbon to tack my
sheets together; in a word, I thought nothing sufficiently elegant and
delicate for my two charming girls, of whom, like another Pygmalion, I
became madly enamoured. Every evening, by the fireside, I read the two
parts to the governesses. The daughter, without saying a word, was
like myself moved to tenderness, and we mingled our sighs; her mother,
finding there were no compliments, understood nothing of the matter,
remained unmoved, and at the intervals when I was silent always
repeated: "Sir, that is very fine."
Madam d'Epinay, uneasy at my being alone, in winter, in a solitary
house, in the midst of woods, often sent to inquire after my health. I
never had such real proofs of her friendship for me, to which mine
never more fully answered. It would be wrong in me were not I, among
these proofs, to make special mention of her portrait, which she
sent me, at the same time requesting instructions from me in what
manner she might have mine, painted by La Tour, and which had been
shown at the exhibition. I ought equally to speak of another proof
of her attention to me, which, although it be laughable, is a
feature in the history of my character, on account of the impression
received from it.
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