However prejudiced I was in favor of this man by former sentiments, which were not extinguished, and by the real merit he had, all was not proof against the cares he took to destroy it.  He received me like the Comte de Tuffiere; he scarcely deigned to return my salute; he never once spoke to me, and prevented my speaking to him by not making me any answer; he everywhere passed first, and took the first place without ever paying me the least attention.  All this would have been supportable had he not accompanied it with a shocking affectation, which may be judged of by one example taken from a hundred.  One evening Madam d’Epinay, finding herself a little indisposed, ordered something for her supper to be carried into her chamber, and went up stairs to sup by the side of the fire.  She asked me to go with her, which I did.  Grimm came afterwards.  The little table was already placed, and there were but two covers.  Supper was served; Madam d’ Epinay took her place on one side of the fire, Grimm took an armed chair, seated himself at the other, drew the little table between them, opened his napkin, and prepared himself for eating without speaking to me a single word.

Madam d’ Epinay blushed at his behavior, and, to induce him to repair his rudeness, offered me her place.  He said nothing, nor did he ever look at me.  Not being able to approach the fire, I walked about the chamber until a cover was brought.  Indisposed as I was, older than himself, longer acquainted in the house than he had been, the person who had introduced him there, and to whom as a favorite of the lady he ought to have done the honors of it, he suffered me to sup at the end of the table, at a distance from the fire, without showing me the least civility.  His whole behavior to me corresponded with this example of it.  He did not treat me precisely as his inferior, but he looked upon me as a cipher.  I could scarcely recognize the same Grimm, who, to the house of the Prince de Saxe-Gotha, thought himself honored when I cast my eyes upon him.  I had still more difficulty in reconciling this profound silence and insulting haughtiness with the tender friendship he possessed for me to those whom he knew to be real friends.  It is true the only proofs he gave of it was pitying my wretched fortune, of which I did not complain; compassionating my sad fate, with which I was satisfied; and lamenting to see me obstinately refuse the benevolent services he said, he wished to render me.  Thus was it he artfully made the world admire his affectionate generosity, blame my ungrateful misanthropy, and insensibly accustomed people to imagine there was nothing more between a protector like him and a wretch like myself, than a connection founded upon benefactions on one part and obligations on the other, without once thinking of a friendship between equals.  For my part, I have vainly sought to discover in what I was under an obligation to this new protector.  I had lent