LIV

A Shrewd But Not an Unusual Scheme

This is not the time, Marquis, to hide from you the true sentiments of the Countess in your regard.  However much I have been able to keep her secret without betraying her friendship, and I have always done so, if I conceal from you what I am going to communicate, you may one day justly reproach me.

Whatever infidelities you may have been guilty of, whatever care I have been able to take to persuade her that you have been entirely forgotten, she has never ceased to love you tenderly.  Although she has sought to punish you by an assumed indifference, she has never thought of depriving herself of the pleasure of seeing you, and it has been through the complaisance of the Countess that I have sometimes worried you; it was to goad you into visiting me more frequently.  But all these schemes have not been able to satisfy a heart so deeply wounded, and she is on the point of executing a design I have all along been opposed to.  You will learn all about it by reading the letter she wrote me yesterday, and which I inclose in this.

FROM THE COUNTESS TO MADEMOISELLE DE L’ENCLOS.

“If you wish to remain my friend, my dear Ninon, cease to combat my resolution; you know it is not the inspiration of the moment.  It is not the fruit of a momentary mortification, an imprudent vexation, nor despair.  I have never concealed it from you.  The possession of the heart of the Marquis de Sevigne might have been my supreme felicity if I could have flattered myself with having it forever.  I was certain of losing it if I had granted him the favors he exacted of me.  His inconstancy has taught me that a different conduct would not be a sure means of retaining a lover.  I must renounce love forever, since men are incapable of having a liaison with a woman, as tender, but as pure as that of simple friendship.

“You, yourself, well know that I am not sufficiently cured to see the Marquis without always suffering.  Flight is the only remedy for my malady, and that is what I am about to take.  I do not fear, moreover, what the world may say about my withdrawal to the country.  I have cautioned those who might be surprised.  It is known that I have won in a considerable action against the heirs of my late husband.  I have given out that I am going to take possession of the estate awarded me.  I will thus deprive the public of the satisfaction of misinterpreting my taste for solitude, and the Marquis of all suspicion that he is in any manner to blame for it.  I inclose his letters and his portrait.