ROUSSEAU. 153 



had been in the East, discovered the trick, and Rousseau 

 was employed by him on a mission to Paris ; from 

 whence he returned, and passing through Chambery, 

 found Madame de Warens, or Maman as he always 

 called her, established there. 



Received again kindly, again he committed his ordi- 

 nary follies. Madame de Warens obtained for him a 

 comfortable place in a public office (the Cadastre). He 

 kept it two years, and then resigned in order to be a 

 music-master. His skill was fortunately become consi- 

 derable, and he had a number of scholars. His patroness 

 now promoted him to the rank of lover, but without 

 discarding the servant Claude Anet, who also took care 

 of her botanical as well as her amorous concerns ; he was 

 a man of considerable merit and great conduct, and 

 became a kind of governor to Rousseau, who more than 

 any child of six years old stood in need of a master. 

 He was succeeded by a young hairdresser's apprentice, 

 as Rousseau found on his return from a few months 

 passed at Montpelier for his health ; the young man 

 supplanted both Claude Anet and Jean Jacques, and 

 continued with this kind-hearted but imprudent 

 woman until, ruined by his extravagance and her own 

 projects, she died in a state of wretchedness over which 

 Rousseau has drawn a veil. He saw her, after an ab- 

 sence of fifteen years, in 1754, at Chailly ; and she 

 came to see him for the last time near Geneva soon 

 after. He had helped her with such sums as he could 

 spare. She now, in receiving a small pittance, showed 

 her constitutional tenderness of heart and that gene- 

 rosity of disposition which no penury could eradicate ; 

 she took off her finger a ring, her only remaining 



