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the melancholy reflections of this unhappy girl, on being, by the death of the prince, left, weak and languishing, without either relation or friend to take care of her among these strangers; at the same time, in case of her recovering, she foresaw what neglect, and how many mortifications she must undergo, from persons who had no prospect of being repaid their advances on her account.
It was in these disagreeable circumstances that I saw her, the first time, in November, 1752. They hardly were mended, when le Blanc had recovered as much strength as to be able to come herself to tell me, that the Duke of Orleans, the inheritor of his father’s virtues, had undertaken to pay the nine months board that had fallen due for her since his father’s death; and that she had, besides, some reason to hope to be put on that Prince’s list, for a yearly pension of two hundred livres for life; adding, at the same time, that until this last point should be settled, which could not happen till the month of January following, she had accepted of a small apartment, which a friend had offered her. But how, says I, do you propose to subsist in this apartment for two months, and perhaps more, in your sickly
