The women of the salons, and other French portraits (1901) (14589935997)

Identifier: womenofsalonsoth00hall (find matches)
Title: The women of the salons, and other French portraits
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Hall, Evelyn Beatrice, 1868-1919
Subjects: Women Salons
Publisher: London, New York (etc.) Longmans, Green, and co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



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teresting:and in each life a drama never before played on anystage. But the type recurs. In Madame Necker, withher passionate heart, her cleverness without wisdom,her instincts in place of judgment, her talent for affec-tion, and for making herself and others wretched bythat affection, every one will recognise some acquaint-ance of his own. Perhaps he will be thus the moreable to feel for her that sympathy without which therecan be no real understanding. Suzanne Curchod was the very bright little daughterof a certain Louis, Evangelical minister at Crassier, inVaud. Madame Curchod was French, very pretty,very firm, very religious. There was by no means toomuch money in the little household. But when thebaby girl was born in 1737, she completed a very real,pious, and modest happiness. Her father was so proud and fond of her that heundertook her tuition himself. It was such a cleverlittle creature from the first, that he felt justified ingiving it a boys education. Suzanne looked up into
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MADAME NECKER 89 his face and learned Latin and geometry, presentlyphysics and science, and possibly Greek. From whatone knows of the famous Madame Necker, one must.suppose that the little girls intellect was exclusivelyfeminine, which is to say that she had a very fine in-tuition, rather than solid reasoning powers, the impulsivecleverness that is brilliant but hardly sound, and thetendency to mistake feeling for logic which markedMother Eve, and marks her daughters for ever. But Suzanne had not only an aptitude for head work.She could play on the violin and the harpsichord. Sheknew something about an unlikely instrument calledthe tympanum. She painted delightfully. When oneadds that she was charmingly vivacious, with very blueeyes, very fair hair, the most exquisite girlish com-plexion, and all the gaiety, modesty, and freshness ofearly youth, it does not seem at all wonderful that herfather always had a large and ever-ready supply ofyoung ministers from Geneva or Lausanne to help h