Since I am now upon the subject of my Venetian acquaintance, Imust not forget one which I still preserved for a considerable time after my intercourse with the rest had ceased.This was M.de Joinville, who continued after his return from Genoa to show me much friendship.He was fond of seeing me and of conversing with me upon the affairs of Italy, and the follies of M.de Montaigu, of whom he of himself knew many anecdotes, by means of his acquaintance in the office for foreign affairs in which he was much connected.I had also the pleasure of seeing at my house my old comrade, Dupont, who had purchased a place in the province of which he was, and whose affairs had brought him to Paris.M.de Joinville became by degrees so desirous of seeing me, that he in some measure laid me under constraint; and, although our places of residence were at a great distance from each other, we had a friendly quarrel when I let a week pass without going to dine with him.When he went to Joinville he was always desirous of my accompanying him; but having once been there to pass a week I had not the least desire to return.M.de Joinville was certainly an honest man, and even amiable in certain respects, but his understanding was beneath mediocrity; he was handsome, rather fond of his person and tolerably fatiguing.He had one of the most singular collections perhaps in the world, to which he gave much of his attention, and endeavored to acquire it that of his friends, to whom it sometimes afforded less amusement than it did to himself.This was a complete collection of songs of the court and Paris for upwards of fifty years past, in which many anecdotes were to be found that would have been sought for in vain elsewhere.These are memoirs for the history of France, which would scarcely be thought of in any other country.
One day, whilst we were still upon the very best terms, he received me so coldly and in a manner so different from that which was customary to him, that after having given him an opportunity to explain, and even having begged him to do it, I left his house with a resolution, in which I have persevered, never to return to it again;for I am seldom seen where I have been once ill received, and in this case there was no Diderot who pleaded for M.de Joinville.Ivainly endeavored to discover what I had done to offend him; I could not recollect a circumstance at which he could possibly have taken offense.I was certain of never having spoken of him or his in any other than in the most honorable manner; for he had acquired my friendship, and besides my having nothing but favorable things to say of him, my most inviolable maxim has been that of never speaking but in an honorable manner of the houses I frequented.
At length, by continually ruminating, I formed the following conjecture: the last time we had seen each other, I had supped with him at the apartment of some girls of his acquaintance, in company with two or three clerks in the office of foreign affairs, very amiable men, and who had neither the manner nor appearance of libertines; and on my part, I can assert that the whole evening passed in ****** melancholy reflections on the wretched fate of the creatures with whom we were.I did not pay anything, as M.de Joinville gave the supper, nor did I make the girls the least present, because I gave them not the opportunity I had done to the padonana of establishing a claim to the trifle I might have offered.We all came away together, cheerfully and upon very good terms.Without having made a second visit to the girls, I went three or four days afterwards to dine with M.de Joinville, whom I had not seen during that interval, and who gave me the reception of which I have spoken.Unable to suppose any other cause for it than some misunderstanding relative to the supper, and perceiving he had no inclination to explain, I resolved to visit him no longer, but I still continued to send him my works: he frequently sent me his compliments, and one evening, meeting him in the green-room of the French theater, he obligingly reproached me with not having called to see him, which, however, did not induce me to depart from my resolution.Therefore this affair had rather the appearance of a coolness than a rupture.However, not having heard of nor seen him since that time, it would have been too late after an absence of several years, to renew my acquaintance with him.It is for this reason M.de Joinville is not named in my list, although Ihad for a considerable time frequented his house.
I will not swell my catalogue with the names of many other persons with whom I was or had become less intimate, although I sometimes saw them in the country, either at my own house or that of some neighbor, such for instance as the Abbes De Condillac and De Mably, M.
de Mairan, De la Lalive, De Boisgelou, Vatelet, Ancelet, and others.Iwill also pass lightly over that of M.de Margency, gentleman in ordinary of the king, an ancient member of the Coterie Holbachique, which he had quitted as well as myself, and the old friend of Madam d'Epinay from whom he had separated as I had done; I likewise consider that of M.Desmahis, his friend, the celebrated but short-lived author of the comedy of L'Impertinent, of much the same importance.The first was my neighbor in the country, his estate at Margency being near to Montmorency.We were old acquaintances, but the neighborhood and a certain conformity of experience connected us still more.The last died soon afterwards.He had merit and even wit, but he was in some degree the original of his comedy, and a little of a coxcomb with women, by whom he was not much regretted.
I cannot, however, omit taking notice of a new correspondence Ientered into at this period, which has had too much influence over the rest of my life not to make it necessary for me to mark its origin.