Mesmin; assured that in him M. Saintonge would find an
opponent more courageous and not less stubborn than himself.
The event bore me out, for within a week M. de St. Mesmin's
pretensions to the hand of Mademoiselle de Saintonge shared with
the Biron affair the attention of all Paris. The young lady,
whose reputation and the care which had been spent on her
breeding, no less than her gifts of person and character,
deserved a better fate, attained in a moment a notoriety far from
enviable; rumour's hundred tongues alleging, and probably with
truth--for what father can vie with a gallant in a maiden's
eyes?--that her inclinations were all on the side of the
pretender. At any rate, St. Mesmin had credit for them; there
was talk of stolen meetings and a bribed waiting-woman; and
though such tales were probably as false as those who gave them
currency were fair, they obtained credence with the thoughtless,
and being repeated from one to another, in time reached her
father's ears, and contributed with St. Mesmin's persecution to
render him almost beside himself.
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