580 Life of Count Rumford. 



agitations, which M. de Rumford with more of tact might have 

 kept from becoming so notorious, a separation became neces- 

 sary, and it took place, amicably, on the 3<Dth of June, 1809. 



"From that date, and during twenty-seven years, no event, 

 we might even say no incident, disturbed Madame de Rumford 

 in her noble and agreeable way of living. She gave herself up 

 equally to her friends and to society in its limited or restricted 

 circle, which she received at her home with a strange mixture 

 of rudeness and politeness, always showing most companionable 

 qualities and full knowledge of the world, notwithstanding her 

 roughness of speech and her caprices of assumption. Every 

 Monday she gave a dinner to rarely more than ten or twelve 

 persons, and that was the occasion on which distinguished men, 

 Frenchmen or foreigners, habitues of the dwelling or casually 

 invited guests, gathered around her and at once established an 

 extemporized intimacy with each other between intellects so 

 cultivated, by the delights of a conversation either serious or 

 piquant, always comprehensive and refined, which Madame de 

 Rumford herself enjoyed more than she participated in. On 

 Tuesdays she received all who might visit her. For Fridays 

 there were large assemblies, composed of very different persons, 

 but all belonging to the best society of their class, and all 

 pleasantly drawn by the attractions of the excellent music which 

 the most celebrated artists and the most accomplished amateurs 

 combined to furnish. 



u Under the Empire, added to its general attractiveness, 

 Madame de Rumford's house had a special charm. Thought 

 and speech had there no official character. A certain freedom 

 of mind and tongue ruled in it, without personal antagonism 

 or political biases, emphatically a freedom of mind, a license 

 of thought and speech, without any distrust or disquiet as to 

 what authority might judge or say, a precious privilege then, 

 more precious than any one to-day imagines. After one has 

 breathed under an air-pump he can appreciate the charms of 

 free respiration." 



M. Guizot goes on to relate how, after the Res- 



