The King and Madame de Pompadour had a very high opinion of Madame de Choiseul.  Madame said, “She always says the right thing in the right place.”  Madame de Grammont was not so agreeable to them; and I think that this was to be attributed, in part, to the sound of her voice, and to her blunt manner of speaking; for she was said to be a woman of great sense, and devotedly attached to the King and Madame de Pompadour.  Some people pretended that she tried to captivate the King, and to supplant Madame:  nothing could be more false, or more ridiculously improbable.  Madame saw a great deal of these two ladies, who were extremely attentive to her.  She one day remarked to the Duc d’Ayen,—­[Afterwards Marechal de Noaines.] that M. de Choiseul was very fond of his sisters.  “I know it, Madame,” said he, “and many sisters are the better for that.”—­“What do you mean?” said she.  “Why,” said he, “as the Duc de Choiseul loves his sister, it is thought fashionable to do the same; and I know silly girls, whose brothers formerly cared nothing about them, who are now most tenderly beloved.  No sooner does their little finger ache, than their brothers are running about to fetch physicians from all corners of Paris.  They flatter themselves that somebody will say, in M. de Choiseul’s drawing-room, ’How passionately M. de ------ loves his sister; he would certainly die if he had the misfortune to lose her.’” Madame related this to her brother, in my presence, adding, that she could not give it in the Duke’s comic manner.  M. de Marigny said, “I have had the start of them all, without making so much noise; and my dear little sister knows that I loved her tenderly before Madame de Grammont left her convent.  The Duc d’Ayen, however, is not very wrong; he has made the most of it in his lively manner, but it is partly true.”—­“I forgot,” replied Madame, “that the Duke said, ’I want extremely to be in the fashion, but which sister shall I take up?  Madame de Caumont is a devil incarnate, Madame de Villars drinks, Madame d’Armagnac is a bore, Madame de la Marck is half mad.’”—­“These are fine family portraits, Duke,” said Madame.  The Duc de Gontaut laughed, during the whole of this conversation, immoderately.  Madame repeated it, one day, when she kept her bed.  M. de G----- also began to talk of his sister, Madame du Roure.  I think, at least, that is the name he mentioned.  He was very gay, and had the art of creating gaiety.  Somebody said, he is an excellent piece of furniture for a favourite.  He makes her laugh, and asks for nothing either for himself or for others; he cannot excite jealousy, and he meddles in nothing.  He was called the White Eunuch.  Madame’s illness increased so rapidly that we were alarmed about her; but bleeding in the foot cured her as if by a miracle.  The King watched her with the greatest solicitude; and I don’t know whether his attentions did not contribute as much to the cure as the bleeding.  M. de Choiseul remarked, some days after, that she appeared in better spirits.  I told him that I thought this improvement might be attributed to the same cause.