husband she retired from Court, and lived many years in the
country; during this retreat, her chief care was bestowed in the
education of her daughter; but she did not make it her business
to cultivate her wit and beauty only, she took care also to
inculcate virtue into her tender mind, and to make it amiable to
her. The generality of mothers imagine, that it is sufficient to
forbear talking of gallantries before young people, to prevent
their engaging in them; but Madam de Chartres was of a different
opinion, she often entertained her daughter with descriptions of
love; she showed her what there was agreeable in it, that she
might the more easily persuade her wherein it was dangerous; she
related to her the insincerity, the faithlessness, and want of
candour in men, and the domestic misfortunes that flow from
engagements with them; on the other hand she made her sensible,
what tranquillity attends the life of a virtuous woman, and what
lustre modesty gives to a person who possesses birth and beauty;
at the same time she informed her, how difficult it was to
perserve this virtue, except by an extreme distrust of one's
self, and by a constant attachment to the only thing which
constitutes a woman's happiness, to love and to be loved by her
husband.

This heiress was, at that time, one of the greatest matches in
France, and though she was very young several marriages had been
proposed to her mother; but Madam de Chartres being ambitious,
hardly thought anything worthy of her daughter, and when she was
sixteen years of age she brought her to Court. The Viscount of
Chartres, who went to meet her, was with reason surprised at the
beauty of the young lady; her fine hair and lovely complexion
gave her a lustre that was peculiar to herself; all her features