So then my ideas of education, which I thought so good, are all worth nothing; I cannot even deny it, since experience has already convinced me of it. I have been three months trying to break my little Constantia, of the unpoliteness of answering ‘Yes,’ or ‘No,’ without the addition of ‘Sir,’ or ‘Madam,’ which children have such an aversion to repeat. All my sufferings, all my maladies, were of no effect. At length your letter determined me to punish my girl for this fault; and for these four days past she has never omitted saying Sir, and Madam, very distinctly, which has persuaded me that your method is better than mine.

I had a very serious dispute yesterday about you: they were talking of you and Madame d’ Ostalis; and they thought it very strange that you did not come to see her in her lying-in, as you affected to love her like your own child. I said, Madame d’ Ostalis was one-and-twenty, had an excellent state of health, and this was not her first lying-in; and it would have been very simple in you to have left your children to take a journey of two hundred leagues, to be present at an event which could not occasion you any apprehensions. They persevered in saying, that you could not love Madame d’ Ostalis; that you had only sacrificed so much of your time to her, and educated her so well, in order to establish her advantageously in the world. Through vanity, in this country essential benefits go for nothing; and praise is only given to trifles. It is because we praise with reluctance what we cannot imitate; and for this reason we do not so much admire sensibility for its great sacrifices, as when it shews itself by attentions, visits, and those little acts of friendship, in which we take so much pleasure, because the most trifling people can give the same testimonies of regard.