The moment I saw her I perceived in
her eyes and whole countenance an appearance of uneasiness, which
struck me the more, as this was not customary, nobody knowing better
than she did how to govern her features and their movements. "My
friend," said she to me, "I am immediately going to set off for
Geneva; my chest is in a bad state, and my health so deranged that I
must go and consult Tronchin." I was the more astonished at this
resolution so suddenly taken, and at the beginning of the bad season
of the year, as thirty-six hours before she had not, when I left
her, so much as thought of it. I asked her who she would take with
her. She said her son and M. de Linant; and afterwards carelessly
added, "And you, bear, will not you go also?" As I did not think she
spoke seriously, knowing that at the season of the year I was scarcely
in a situation to go to my chamber, I joked upon the utility of the
company, of one sick person to another. She herself had not seemed
to make the proposition seriously, and here the matter dropped. The
rest of our conversation ran upon the necessary preparations for her
journey, about which she immediately gave orders, being determined
to set off within a fortnight. She lost nothing by my refusal,
having prevailed upon her husband to accompany her.
A few days afterwards I received from Diderot the note I am going to
transcribe. This note, simply doubled up, so that the contents were
easily read, was addressed to me at Madam d'Epinay's, and sent to M.
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