Madame de Warens was at its head, and Claude Anet, gardener, butler, steward, was her factotum.

He was a discreet person, of severe probity and few words, firm, thrifty, and sage.

The too comprehensive principles of his mistress admitted him to the closest intimacy, and in due time, when Madame de Warens thought of the seductions which ensnare the feet of youth, Rousseau was delivered from them in an equivocal way by solicitous application of the same maxims of comprehension.

"Although Claude Anet was as young as she was, he was so mature and so grave, that he looked upon us as two children worthy of indulgence, and we both looked upon him as a respectable man, whose esteem it was our business to conciliate.

Thus there grew up between us three a companionship, perhaps without another example like it upon earth.