Such, with my host M.Mathas, who was a good man, were my principal country acquaintance.I still had a sufficient number at Paris to live there agreeably whenever I chose it, out of the sphere of men of letters, amongst whom Duclos was the only friend I reckoned:
for De Leyre was still too young, and although, after having been a witness to the maneuvers of the philosophical tribe against me, he had withdrawn from it, at least I thought so, I could not yet forget the facility with which he made himself the mouthpiece of all the people of that description.
In the first place I had my old and respectable friend Rougin.
This was a good old-fashioned friend for whom I was not indebted to my writings but to myself, and whom for that reason I have always preserved.I had the good Lenieps, my countryman, and his daughter, then alive, Madam Lambert.I had a young Genevese, named Coindet, a good creature, careful, officious, zealous, who came to see me soon after I had gone to reside at the Hermitage, and, without any other introducer than himself, had made his way into my good graces.He had a taste for drawing, and was acquainted with artists.He was of service to me relative to the engravings of the New Eloisa; he undertook the direction of the drawings and the plates, and acquitted himself well of the commission.
I had free access to the house of M.Dupin which, less brilliant than in the young days of Madam Dupin, was still, by the merit of the heads of the family, and the choice of company which assembled there, one of the best houses in Paris.As I had not preferred anybody to them, and had separated myself from their society to live free and independent, they had always received me in a friendly manner, and I was always certain of being well received by Madam Dupin.I might even have counted her amongst my country neighbors after her establishment at Clichy, to which place I sometimes went to pass a day or two, and where I should have been more frequently had Madam Dupin and Madam de Chenonceaux been upon better terms.But the difficulty of dividing my time in the same house between two women whose manner of thinking was unfavorable to each other, made this disagreeable:
however I had the pleasure of seeing her more at my ease at Deuil, where, at a trifling distance from me, she had taken a small house, and even at my own habitation, where she often came to see me.
I had likewise for a friend Madam de Crequi, who, having become devout, no longer received D'Alembert, Marmontel, nor a single man of letters, except, I believe, the Abbe Trublet, half a hypocrite, of whom she was weary.I, whose acquaintance she had sought, lost neither her good wishes nor intercourse.She sent me young fat pullets from Mans, and her intention was to come and see me the year following had not a journey, upon which Madam de Luxembourg determined, prevented her.I here owe her a place apart; she will always hold a distinguished one in my remembrance.
In this list I should also place a man whom, except Roguin, Iought to have mentioned as the first upon it: my old friend and brother politician, De Carrio, formerly titulary secretary to the embassy from Spain to Venice, afterwards in Sweden, where he was charge des affaires, and at length really secretary to the embassy from Spain at Paris.He came and surprised me at Montmorency when Ileast expected him.He was decorated with the insignia of a Spanish order, the name of which I have forgotten, with a fine cross in jewelry.He had been obliged, in his proofs of nobility, to add a letter to his name, and to bear that of the Chevalier de Carrion.Ifound him still the same man, possessing the same excellent heart, and his mind daily improving, and becoming more and more amiable.We should have renewed our former intimacy had not Coindet interposed according to custom, taken advantage of the distance I was at from town to insinuate himself into my place, and, in my name, into his confidence, and supplant me by the excess of his zeal to render me services.
The remembrance of Carrion makes me recollect one of my country neighbors, of whom I should be inexcusable not to speak, as I have to make confession of an unpardonable neglect of which I was guilty towards him: this was the honest M.le Blond, who had done me a service at Venice, and, having made an excursion to France with his family, had taken a house in the country, at Briche, not far from Montmorency.* As soon as I heard he was my neighbor, I, in the joy of my heart, and making it more a pleasure than a duty, went to pay him a visit.I set off upon this errand the next day.I was met by people who were coming to see me, and with whom I was obliged to return.Two days afterwards I set off again for the same purpose: he had dined at Paris with all his family.A third time he was at home: Iheard the voice of women, and saw, at the door, a coach which alarmed me.I wished to see him, at least for the first time, quite at my ease, that we might talk over what had passed during our former connection.
* When I wrote this, full of my blind confidence, I was far from suspecting the real motive and the effect of this journey to Paris.
In fine, I so often postponed my visit from day to day, that the shame of discharging a like duty so late prevented me from doing it at all; after having dared to wait so long, I no longer dared to present myself.This negligence, at which M.le Blond could not but be justly offended, gave, relative to him, the appearance of ingratitude to my indolence, and yet I felt my heart so little culpable that, had it been in my power to do M.le Blond the least service, even unknown to himself, I am certain he would not have found me idle.But indolence, negligence and delay in little duties to be fulfilled have been more prejudicial to me than great vices.My greatest faults have been omissions: I have seldom done what I ought not to have done, and unfortunately it has still more rarely happened that I have done what I ought.