"She was not at all like the woman of my imagination; she looked
very little like the bold and vigorous thinker she is; one would
have taken her at first sight for a gentle, serene old grandmother.
She is short, and inclined to _embonpoint_. Her hair, which is
still abundant, though faded by time, was simply arranged. Her
features are not striking; her eyes have that vague, dreamy look
which she herself refers to in her 'Histoire de Ma Vie' as one of
her marked characteristics."
Most people in her youth found her beautiful, though some thought her
face heavy, and even coarse; but she had a matchless charm of manner
which had far more effect than any mere beauty. She seemed to enslave
men at her will. Poets, artists, statesmen, and priests, were all at her
side, or at her feet. Her manner, at least in later life, was very
retiring, and she was singularly modest and free from literary vanity.
When asked once which of her works she preferred, she answered,
apparently quite sincerely, "Mon Dieu, I detest them all."