Max Pemberton

“ Then only was the floodgate of talk opened; then only did the crows begin to caw.
"Well, Monsieur de Guyon, and what news have you to tell me of Paris?"
The girl at the head of the table turned a pair of searching eyes upon him. Her face wore the suspicion of a smile. He felt that she was looking him through and through. And he returned her glance, putting on the air of a man who could not by any possibility conceal anything.
"Indeed, madame," said he, "I left the Barrière d'Enfer yesterday at daybreak. We count nothing news in Paris that is forty hours old. ”

“ But de Guyon, glad to be set going, answered him apace
"The loss of Madame Doublet de Persan is irretrievable," said he: "we shall not see her like again in Paris. Madame Geoffrin is old; Madame du Deffand grows tiresome. You have heard, monsieur, that her Majesty of Russia is anxious to carry the fashion of the city to the bourgeoisie of St. Petersburg. Madame Geoffrin has refused her twice. Madame du Deffand declines to be the instrument. Society, she says, is made up of persons incapable of knowledge, thought, and feeling. They have enough of those in Muscovy already." ”

“ They do say that the women at the Court nowadays carry much virtue on their skulls and little in their breasts. But, for myself, I pay no heed to these scandals. The tongue of the world is very wicked, Monsieur de Guyon. ”