Her daughter told me her mother would, on the
whole, have been very sorry to quit the Hermitage, which was really
a very delightful abode, being fond of the little amusements of the
garden and the care of the fruit of which she had the handling, but
that she had said, what she had been desired to say, to induce me to
return to Paris.
Failing in this attempt they endeavored to obtain by a scruple the
effect which complaisance had not produced, and construed into a crime
my keeping the old woman at a distance from the succors of which, at
her age, she might be in need. They did not recollect that she, and
many other old people, whose lives were prolonged by the air of the
country, might obtain these succors at Montmorency, near to which I
lived; as if there were no old people, except in Paris, and that it
was impossible for them to live in any other place. Madam le
Vasseur, who ate a great deal, and with extreme voracity, was
subject to overflowings of bile and to strong diarrhoeas, which lasted
several days, and served her instead of clysters. At Paris she neither
did nor took anything for them, but left nature to itself. She
observed the same rule at the Hermitage, knowing it was the best thing
she could do. No matter, since there were not in the country either
physicians or apothecaries, keeping her there must, no doubt, be
with the desire of putting an end to her existence, although she was
in perfect health. Diderot should have determined at what age, under
pain of being punished for homicide, it is no longer permitted to
let old people remain out of Paris.
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