THE LAST YEARS 397 



elated a steadfastness of character and outlook on life that con- 

 trasted markedly with her own impulsiveness. In the salon at 

 Coppet Madame de StaeTs brilliant paradoxes formed a stimulant 

 to her friend's quick and ready appeals to reason. ' My cousin,' 

 she wrote, ' has all the wit I am given credit for, and all the virtues 

 I lack.' And again, ' I would willingly give half my wit for half 

 your beauty .' Madame Necker-de Saussure 's portrait is thus drawn : 

 ' She had regular and finely modelled features, her eyes, large and 

 dark, threw up the whiteness of her complexion ; her hair, which 

 was brown, she wore powdered in her youth ; she was short, but 

 with a perfect figure, which she preserved to an advanced age.' 

 Nor was it only on the surface of social life that the tie of friendship 

 held fast ; Madame de Stael, when forced to quit Switzerland, left 

 her father to die in Madame Necker-de Saussure 's arms. On the 

 other hand, Madame Necker-de Saussure delighted in a spontaneity 

 and brilliancy of wit rare in the conversations of what she calls 

 ' our regular Genevese set,' whom, it may be remembered, Gibbon 

 found dull compared to the literary ladies of Lausanne. Her 

 affection for Madame de Stael had a depth that enabled it to over- 

 look her friend's occasional whims and frequent caprices. She 

 easily pardoned the self -absorption that at times drew from her a 

 passing complaint ; she made the largest allowances for irregu- 

 larities of conduct resulting from a mind and a nature touched 

 with genius and incapable of any repose. Yet her admiration was 

 by no means blind, she understood her cousin thoroughly, and in 

 minor matters watched her with the critical eye of an elder sister. 

 Thus she writes, ' My cousin could not believe for a moment 

 that I was ill. She thought it very odd that I did not want to 

 receive visitors, or to have a little dinner party round my bed. 

 In short, I have fallen greatly in her estimation.' At another 

 moment she protests after some recital, ' Why do you say I felt 

 less than my cousin ? Have you forgotten that she was there, 

 and that her prerogative of taking the lead in appreciation and 

 praise, and also her certainty well founded, no doubt that she 

 is the one person appealed to, take away from others all power 

 of utterance and possibly of more than utterance ? ' The 

 relations of the two ladies are perhaps best illustrated in a vivid 

 picture of the salon at Coppet and of the parts played by its 

 hostess and her friend in the social tournaments of which it was 



