In fact, she was the smartest woman there and represented three princes and a duke.

Caroline Hequet, born at Bordeaux, daughter of a little clerk long since dead of shame, was lucky enough to be possessed of a mother with a head on her shoulders, who, after having cursed her, had made it up again at the end of a year of reflection, being minded, at any rate, to save a fortune for her daughter.

The latter was twenty-five years old and very passionless and was held to be one of the finest women it is possible to enjoy.

Her price never varied.
The mother, a model of orderliness, kept the accounts and noted down receipts and expenditures with severe precision.

She managed the whole household from some small lodging two stories above her daughter's, where, moreover, she had established a workroom for dressmaking and plain sewing.