He replied, “It is very true that I am not a hero of romance, and that I do not make love like a Celadon, but I love in my way.”

“Your way,” I said, “is an extremely gross one.” . . .  This made him laugh.

He likes the business of his gallantry to be conducted with beat of drum, without the least refinement.  He reminds me of the old Patriarchs, who were surrounded by women.

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All women do not please him alike.  He does not like fine airs so well as profligate manners:  the opera-house dancers are his favourites.  The women run after him from mere interest, for he pays them well.  A pleasant enough adventure happened last winter: 

A young and pretty woman visited my son in his cabinet; he presented her with a diamond of the value of 2,000 Louis and a box worth 200.  This woman had a jealous husband, but she had effrontery enough to shew him the jewels which she said had been offered to her a great bargain by persons who wanted the money, and she begged him not to let such an opportunity slip.  The credulous husband gave her the money she asked for.  She thanked him, put the box in her dressing-case and the diamond on her finger, and displayed it in the best company.

When she was asked where she got the ring and the bog, “M. de Parabere gave them to me,” she said; and he, who happened to be present, added, “Yes, I gave them to her; can one do less when one has for a wife a lady of quality who loves none but her husband?”

This caused some mirth; for other people were not so simple as the husband, and knew very well where the presents came from.  If my son has a queen-sultana, it is this Madame de Parabere.  Her mother, Madame de la Vieuville, was dame d’atour to the Duchesse de Berri.—­[Marie-Madeline de la Vieuville, Comtesse de la Parabere; it was she whom the Regent used to call “his little black crow."]—­It was there that my son first became acquainted with the daughter, who is now a widow:  she is of a slight figure, dark complexion, and never paints; her eyes and mouth are pretty; she is not very sensible, but is a desirable little person.  My son says he likes her because she thinks of nothing but amusing herself, and never interferes with other affairs.  That would be very well if she were not a drunkard, and if she did not make my son eat and drink so much, and take him to a farm which she has at Anieres, and where he sometimes sups with her and the country folks.  It is said that he becomes a little jealous of Parabere, in which case he must love her more than he has done yet.  I often tell him that, if he really loved, he would not suffer his mistresses to run after others, and to commit such frequent infidelities.  He replied that there was no such thing as love except in romances.  He broke with Seri, because, as he said, she wanted him to love her like an Arcadian.  He has often made me laugh at his complaining of this seriously, and with an air of great affliction.