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 A net, 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 



