Whether it was from ambition, or from tenderness, Madame de Pompadour had a regard for her daughter, which seemed to proceed from the bottom of her heart.  She was brought up like a Princess, and, like persons of that rank, was called by her Christian name alone.  The first persons at Court had an eye to this alliance, but her mother had, perhaps, a better project.  The King had a son by Madame de Vintimille, who resembled him in face, gesture, and manners.  He was called the Comte du ——.  Madame de Pompadour had him brought to Bellevue.  Colin, her steward, was employed to find means to persuade his tutor to bring him thither.  They took some refreshment at the house of the Swiss, and the Marquise, in the course of her walk, appeared to meet them by accident.  She asked the name of the child, and admired his beauty.  Her daughter came up at the same moment, and Madame de Pompadour led them into a part of the garden where she knew the King would come.  He did come, and asked the child’s name.  He was told, and looked embarrassed when Madame, pointing to them, said they would be a beautiful couple.  The King played with the girl, without appearing to take any notice of the boy, who, while he was eating some figs and cakes which were brought, his attitudes and gestures were so like those of the King, that Madame de Pompadour was in the utmost astonishment.  “Ah!” said she, “Sire, look at ——­” “At what?” said he.  “Nothing,” replied Madame, “except that one would think one saw his father.”

“I did not know,” said the King, smiling, “that you were so intimately acquainted with the Comte du L——.”  “You ought to embrace him,” said she, “he is very handsome.”  “I will begin, then, with the young lady,” said the King, and embraced them in a cold, constrained manner.  I was present, having joined Mademoiselle’s governess.  I remarked to Madame, in the evening, that the King had not appeared very cordial in his caresses.  “That is his way,” said she; “but do not those children appear made for each other?  If it was Louis XIV., he would make a Duc du Maine of the little boy; I do not ask so much; but a place and a dukedom for his son is very little; and it is because he is his son that I prefer him to all the little Dukes of the Court.  My grandchildren would blend the resemblance of their grandfather and grandmother; and this combination, which I hope to live to see, would, one day, be my greatest delight.”  The tears came into her eyes as she spoke.  Alas! alas! only six months elapsed, when her darling daughter, the hope of her advanced years, the object of her fondest wishes, died suddenly.  Madame de Pompadour was inconsolable, and I must do M. de Marigny the justice to say that he was deeply afflicted.  His niece was beautiful as an angel, and destined to the highest fortunes, and I always thought that he had formed the design of marrying her.  A dukedom would have given him rank; and that, joined to his place, and to the wealth which she would have had from her mother,