Madame du Deffand says, I love you better than any thing in the world.  If true, I hope you have not less penetration:  if you have not, or it is not true, what would professions avail?-So I leave that matter in suspense.  Adieu!

October 7.

Madame du Deffand was quite well yesterday; and at near one this, morning I left the Duc de Choiseul, the Duchess de Grammont, the Prince and the Princess of Beauveau, Princess Of Poix,(232) the Mar`echale de Luxembourg, Duchess de Lauzun, Ducs de Gontaut(233) et de Chabot, and Caraccioli, round her chaise longue; and she herself was not a dumb personage.  I have not heard yet how she has slept, and must send away my letter this moment, as I must dress to go to dinner with Monsieur de Malesherbes at Madame de Villegagnon’s.  I must repose a great while after all this living in company; nay, intend to go very little into the world again, as I do not admire the French way of burning one’s candle to the very snuff in public.  Tell Mrs. Damer, that the fashion now is to erect the toup`ee into a high detached tuft of hair, like a cockatoo’s crest; and this toup`ee they call la physionomie—­I don’t guess why.

My laquais is come back from St. Joseph’s, and says Marie(234) de Vichy has had a very good night, and is quite well.—­Philip!(235) let my chaise be ready on Thursday.(236)

(229) Afterwards Charles the Tenth.-E.

(230) On the death of his father, in 1785, he became Duke of Orleans.  In 1792, he was chosen a member of the National-Convention, when he adopted the Jacobinical title of Louis-Philippe-Joseph Egalit`e; and, in November 1793, he suffered by the guillotine. -E.

(231) The Duc de Lauzun, son of the Duc de Gontaut, the maternal nephew of the Duchesse de Choiseul.-E.

(232) Wife of the Prince de Poix, eldest son of the Mar`echal de Mouchy, and daughter of the Prince de Beauveau.  The Prince de Poix retired to this country on the breaking out of the French revolution, accompanied by his son, Comte Charles de Noailles, who married the daughter of La Borde, the great banker.-E.

(233) The Duc de Gontaut, brother to the Mar`echal Duc de Biron, and father to the Duc de Lauzun.  The Duchesse de Gontaut was a sister of the Duchesse de Choiseul-E.

(234) The maiden name of Madame du Deffand was Marie de Vichy Chamrond.  She was born in 1697, of a noble family in the province of Burgundy; and, as her fortune was small, she was married by her parents, in 1718, to the Marquis du Deffand; the union being settled with as little attention to her feelings as was usual in French marriages of that age.  A separation soon took place; but Walpole says they always continued on good terms, and that upon her husband’s deathbed, at his express desire, she saw him.-E.

(235) Mr. Walpole’s valet-de-chambre.

(236) Walpole left Paris on the 12th; upon which day, Madame du Deffand thus wrote to him—­“Adieu! ce mot est bien triste!  Souvenez que vous laissez ici la personne dont vous `etes le plus aim`e, et dont le bonheur et le malheur consistent dans ce que vous pensez pour elle.  Donnez-moi de vos nouvelles le plus t`ot qu’il sera possible."-E.