On the making of the contract, Scarron’s fun revived.  When asked by the notary what was the young lady’s fortune, he replied:  ’Four louis, two large wicked eyes, one fine figure, one pair of good hands, and lots of mind.’  ‘And what do you give her?’ asked the lawyer.—­’Immortality,’ replied he, with the air of a bombastic poet ’The names of the wives of kings die with them—­that of Scarron’s wife will live for ever!’

His marriage obliged him to give up his canonry, which he sold to Menage’s man-servant, a little bit of simony which was not even noticed in those days.  It is amusing to find a man who laughed at all religion, insisting that his wife should make a formal avowal of the Romish faith.  Of the character of this marriage we need say no more than that Scarron had at that time the use of no more than his eyes, tongue, and hands.  Yet such was then, as now, the idea of matrimony in France, that the young lady’s friends considered her fortunate.

Scarron in love was a picture which amazed and amused the whole society of Paris, but Scarron married was still more curious.  The queen, when she heard of it, said that Francoise would be nothing but a useless bit of furniture in his house.  She proved not only the most useful appendage he could have, but the salvation alike of his soul and his reputation.  The woman who charmed Louis XIV. by her good sense, had enough of it to see Scarron’s faults, and prided herself on reforming him as far as it was possible.  Her husband had hitherto been the great Nestor of indelicacy, and when he was induced to give it up, the rest followed his example.  Madame Scarron checked the licence of the abbe’s conversation, and even worked a beneficial change in his mind.

The joviality of their parties still continued.  Scarron had always been famous for his petits soupers, the fashion of which he introduced, but as his poverty would not allow him to give them in proper style, his friends made a pic-nic of it, and each one either brought or sent his own dish of ragout, or whatever it might be, and his own bottle of wine.  This does not seem to have been the case after the marriage, however; for it is related as a proof of Madame Scarron’s conversational powers, that, when one evening a poorer supper than usual was served, the waiter whispered in her ear, ’Tell them another story, Madame, if you please, for we have no joint to-night.’  Still both guests and host could well afford to dispense with the coarseness of the cripple’s talk, which might raise a laugh, but must sometimes have caused disgust, and the young wife of sixteen succeeded in making him purer both in his conversation and his writings.