She passed me on to Madame de Noytot; she, in her turn, to Mademoiselle de Braye; and there were others.

I was the one thing permanent; they were all transient as clouds; a day or two of their care, and then came the last farewell and--somewhere far off in that roaring Paris that surrounded us--the bloody scene.

I was the cherished one, the last comfort, of these dying women.

I have been in pitched fights, my lord, and I never knew such courage.

It was all done smiling, in the tone of good society; _belle maman_ was the name I was taught to give to each; and for a day or two the new "pretty mamma" would make much of me, show me off, teach me the minuet, and to say my prayers; and then, with a tender embrace, would go the way of her predecessors, smiling.