Volume 1

Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau / Jean Jacques Rousseau.

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau / Jean Jacques Rousseau. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a cat, was to be seen ; and all the time I was there the house re¬ mained as firmly closed as if it had never been inhabited. The street was narrow and deserted ; the presence of a man attracted attention ; from time to time someone passed, or went in or out of the neighbourhood. I was much troubled about my person ; it seemed to me that they guessed why I was there ; and this idea tormented me, for I have always preferred the honour and repose of those who were dear to me to my own pleasures. At last, tired of playing the Spanish lover and having no guitar, I determined to write to Mademoiselle de Graffenried. I would rather have written to her friend, but I did not dare to do so ; besides, it was more becoming to begin with the one to whom I owed the acquaintance of the other, and with whom I was more intimate. When my letter was finished, I took it to Mademoiselle Giraud, as had been agreed with the young ladies when we parted. It was they who suggested this expedient. Mademoiselle Giraud was a quilter, and, as she sometimes worked at Madame Galley’s, she had access to her house. The messenger, certainly, did not appear to me well chosen : but I was afraid that, if I made any difficulty about her, they would propose no other. Besides, I did not dare to hint that she wanted to estab¬ lish a claim of her own upon me. I felt mortified that she should venture to think that she was, in my eyes, of the same sex as those young ladies. In short, I preferred this means of delivering my letter to none at all, and took my chance. At the first word Giraud guessed my secret; it was not difficult. Even if a letter to be delivered to a young lady had not spoken for itself, my silly and embarrassed air alone would have betrayed me. It may be imagined that this commission did not afford her great pleasure ; however, she undertook it, and exe¬ cuted it faithfully. The next morning I ran to her house, where I found my answer. How I hastened to get outside, to read and kiss it to my heart’s content—that there is no need to tell; but there is all the more reason to mention the manner in which Mademoiselle Giraud behaved, in which she showed greater delicacy and reserve than I should have expected from her. Sensible enough to perceive that, with her thirty-seven years, her leveret’s eyes, her snuff-bedaubed nose, her shrill voice and her black skin, she stood a bad chance against two young persons, full of grace and in all the splendour of beauty, she resolved neither to betray nor to assist them, and preferred to lose me rather than help them to win me. [1732.] Merceret, not having received any tidings of her