though he has a strong ‘tocco di tedesco’.  They both spoke well of you, and so far I liked them both.  How go you on with the amiable little Blot?  Does she listen to your Battering tale?  Are you numbered among the list of her admirers?  Is Madame------your Madame de Lursay?  Does she sometimes knot, and are you her Meilcour?  They say she has softness, sense, and engaging manners; in such an apprenticeship much may be learned.—­[This whole passage, and several others, allude to Crebillon’s ’Egaremens du Coeur et de l’Esprit’, a sentimental novel written about that time, and then much in vogue at Paris.]

A woman like her, who has always pleased, and often been pleased, can best teach the art of pleasing; that art, without which, ’ogni fatica vana’.  Marcel’s lectures are no small part of that art:  they are the engaging forerunner of all other accomplishments.  Dress is also an article not to be neglected, and I hope you do not neglect it; it helps in the ‘premier abord’, which is often decisive.  By dress, I mean your clothes being well made, fitting you, in the fashion and not above it; your hair well done, and a general cleanliness and spruceness in your person.  I hope you take infinite care of your teeth; the consequences of neglecting the mouth are serious, not only to one’s self, but to others.  In short, my dear child, neglect nothing; a little more will complete the whole.  Adieu.  I have not heard from you these three weeks, which I think a great while.

LETTER CXLII

London, May 10, O. S. 1751.

My dear friend:  I received yesterday, at the same time, your letters of the 4th and 11th, N. S., and being much more careful of my commissions than you are of yours, I do not delay one moment sending you my final instructions concerning the pictures.  The man you allow to be a Titian, and in good preservation; the woman is an indifferent and a damaged picture; but as I want them for furniture for a particular room, companions are necessary; and therefore I am willing to take the woman for better for worse, upon account of the man; and if she is not too much damaged, I can have her tolerably repaired, as many a fine woman is, by a skillful hand here; but then I expect that the lady should be, in a manner, thrown into the bargain with the man; and, in this state of affairs, the woman being worth little or nothing, I will not go above fourscore Louis for the two together.  As for the Rembrandt you mention, though it is very cheap, if good, I do not care for it.  I love ’la belle nature’; Rembrandt paints caricatures.  Now for your own commissions, which you seem to have forgotten.  You mention nothing of the patterns which you received by Monsieur Tollot, though I told you in a former letter, which you must have had before the date of your last, that I should stay till I received the patterns pitched upon by your ladies; for as to the instructions which you sent me in Madame Monconseil’s hand, I could find no mohairs in London that exactly answered that description; I shall, therefore, wait till you send me (which you may easily do in a letter) the patterns chosen by your three graces.