Mademoiselle Choin retired to the house of Lacroix, one of her relatives at Paris, where she lived quite hidden.  She was informed of the rare days when Monseigneur dined alone at Meudon, without sleeping there.  She went there the day before in a fiacre, passed through the courts on foot, ill clad, like a common sort of woman going to see some officer at Meudon, and, by a back staircase, was admitted to Monseigneur who passed some hours with her in a little apartment on the first floor.  In time she came there with a lady’s-maid, her parcel in her pocket, on the evenings of the days that Monseigneur slept there.

She remained in this apartment without seeing anybody, attended by her lady’s-maid, and waited upon by a servant who alone was in the secret.

Little by little the friends of Monseigneur were allowed to see her; and amongst these were M. le Prince de Conti, Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne, Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, and M. le Duc de Berry.  There was always, however, an air of mystery about the matter.  The parties that took place were kept secret, although frequent, and were called parvulos.

Mademoiselle Choin remained in her little apartment only for the convenience of Monseigneur.  She slept in the bed and in the grand apartment where Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne lodged when the King was at Meudon.  She always sat in an arm-chair before Monseigneur; Madame de Bourgogne sat on a stool.  Mademoiselle Choin never rose for her; in speaking of her, even before Monseigneur and the company, she used to say “the Duchesse de Bourgogne,” and lived with her as Madame de Maintenon did excepting that “darling” and “my aunt,” were terms not exchanged between them, and that Madame de Bourgogne was not nearly so free, or so much at her ease, as with the King and Madame de Maintenon.  Monsieur de Bourgogne was much in restraint.  His manners did not agree with those of that world.  Monseigneur le Duc de Berry, who was more free, was quite at home.

Mademoiselle Choin went on fete-days to hear mass in the chapel at six o’clock in the morning, well wrapped up, and took her meals alone, when Monseigneur did not eat with her.  When he was alone with her, the doors were all guarded and barricaded to keep out intruders.  People regarded her as being to Monseigneur, what Madame de Maintenon was to the King.  All the batteries for the future were directed and pointed towards her.  People schemed to gain permission to visit her at Paris; people paid court to her friends and acquaintances, Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne sought to please her, was respectful to her, attentive to her friends, not always with success.  She acted towards Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne like a mother-in-law, and sometimes spoke with such authority and bluntness to Madame de Bourgogne as to make her cry.

The King and Madame de Maintenon were in no way ignorant of all this, but they held their tongues, and all the Court who knew it, spoke only in whispers of it.  This is enough for the present; it will serve to explain many things, of which I shall speak anon.