THE GRAND TOUR (1768-69) 95 



Of his wife, de Saussure writes : 



' My dear companion goes with me almost everywhere ; often she 

 seizes things that escape me. Everyone is charmed to see a young 

 wife accompany her husband on his travels, and share his occupations 

 and his studies. She bears without any difficulty the fatigue and 

 the little discomforts inseparable from travel ; always gay, always 

 ready, she was destined to make my happiness.' 



He recounts her social successes, her manners, free equally 

 from timidity or affectation, her tact in talking always at the 

 right moment and to the point. ' I wish,' he adds, ' some of our 

 mincing coquettes could come here ; they would realise that their 

 style is lower middle -class, and even the worse sort of that.' 



Of the impression made by the three young Genevese ladies 

 in the Paris salons we find an independent record in a letter 

 written to de Saussure early in 1769 by the eloquent lawyer 

 Loiseau de Mauleon, a friend of Voltaire, and remembered as the 

 defender of the Galas. 1 The writer thanks de Saussure for 

 sympathy on his mother's death, and then goes on to refer to the 

 ' quatre amies de 1'Hotel de la Paix.' Translation would here 

 take away the charm of the original French. 



' Mes seules distractions sont de me rappeler cet extreme don de 

 plaire que possede si parfaitement Madame Turrettin, 2 dont la beaute, 

 1'esprit, la parole et la grace sont tellement d'accord et font un tout 

 si exquis que de ma vie je n'y ay vu femme plus aimable. Je n'oublieray 

 jamais non plus ce caractere si noble, si distingue, si rare de Madame 

 Tronchin. 3 Je le trouvois sur sa physionomie, sur son maintien, sur 

 son silence meme ; je 1'admirois avec un respect tendre. Elle m'a 

 laisse des traces qui ne s'aneantiront qu'avec moy. Sa destinee me 

 sera toujours chere. Et si quelque chose pouvoit jamais adoucir 

 l'amertume des maux que j 'endure, dites luy, je vous prie, mon cher 

 ami, que ce seroit le bonheur dont on m'assure que son nouvel etablisse- 

 ment la fait jouir. Dites aussi, si vous le voulez bien, a votre respec- 

 table femme combien je suis touche de 1'amitie qu'elle m'a montree 

 a son retour de Londres. J'ay souvent dit a Mademoiselle Tronchin 4 

 que je me reprochois de ne luy avoir pas assez fait voir les sentimens 



1 The Nouvelle Biographic Universelle states that de Mauleon died at the age 

 of forty-three from depression caused by an unrequited love affair. 



2 The Genevese of this generation omitted the final ' i ' in Italian names. 



3 Mile. Boissier, ' Minette,' shortly after her return from Paris, married a son 

 of the Procureur-General, J. R. Tronchin. 



4 A daughter of Dr. Tronchin. 



