58 To the, Hon. Henry Seymour Conway [1774
friend, and as it is her own nature a little, than will be quite
convenient to you: but you have an infinite deal of patience
and good nature, and will excuse it. I was afraid of her
importuning Lady Ailesbury, who has a vast deal to see and
do, and, therefore, I have prepared Madame du Deffand,
and told her Lady Ailesbury loves amusements, and that,
having never been at Paris before, she must not confine her:
so you must pay for both—and it will answer: and I do
not, I own, ask this only for Madame du Deffand's sake, but
for my own, and a little for yours. Since the late King's
death she has not dared to write to me freely, and I want to
know the present state of France exactly, both to satisfy my
own curiosity, and for her sake, as I wish to learn whether
her pension, &c., is in any danger from the present ministry,
some of whom are not her friends. She can tell you a great
deal if she will—by that I don't mean that she is reserved,
or partial to her own country against ours—quite the
contrary; she loves me better than all France together—
but she hates politics: and therefore, to make her talk on
it, you must tell her it is to satisfy me, and that I want to
know whether she is well at court, whether she has any
fears from the government, particularly from Maurepas and
Mvernois: and that I am eager to have Monsieur de Ohoiseul
and ma grand'maman, the Duchess, restored to power. If
you take it on this foot easily, she will talk to you with the
utmost frankness and with amazing cleverness. I have told
her you are strangely absent, and that, if she does not repeat
it over and over, you will forget every syllable: so I have
prepared her to joke and be quite familiar with you at once.
She knows more of personal characters, and paints them
better, than anybody: but let this be between ourselves, for
I would not have a living soul suspect that I get any
intelligence from her, which would hurt her; and, there-
fore, I beg you not to let any human being know of this,