This does not seem to have been the case after the marriage, however;
for it is related as a proof of Madame Scarron's conversational powers,
that, when one evening a poorer supper than usual was served, the waiter
whispered in her ear, 'Tell them another story, Madame, if you please,
for we have no joint to-night.' Still both guests and host could well
afford to dispense with the coarseness of the cripple's talk, which
might raise a laugh, but must sometimes have caused disgust, and the
young wife of sixteen succeeded in making him purer both in his
conversation and his writings.
The household she entered was indeed a villainous one. Scarron rather
gloried in his early delinquencies, and, to add to this, his two sisters
had characters far from estimable. One of them had been maid of honour
to the Princesse de Conti, but had given up her appointment to become
the mistress of the Duc de Tremes. The laugher laughed even at his
sister's dishonour, and allowed her to live in the same house on a
higher _etage_. When, on one occasion, some one called on him to solicit
the lady's interest with the duke, he coolly said, 'You are mistaken; it
is not I who know the duke; go up to the next storey.
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