herself, "a tom-boy"; she had at her command an enormous library, which allowed her to acquire, at a very early age, a great mass of information. The literary spirit being developed in her, Mademoiselle des Touches began by assisting her aged uncle; wrote three articles that he believed were his own work, and, in 1822, made her beginning in literature with two volumes of dramatic works, after the fashion of Lope de Vega and Shakespeare, which produced a sort of artistic revolution. She then assumed as a permanent appellation, the pseudonym of Camille Maupin, and led a bright and independent life. Her income of eighty thousand livres, her castle of Les Touches, near Guerande—Loire-Inferieure—her Parisian mansion on the rue de Mont-Blanc—now rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin,—her birth, and her connections, had their power of influence. Her irregularities were covered as with a veil, in consideration of her genius. Indeed, Mademoiselle des Touches had more than one lover: a gallant about 1817; then an original mind, a sceptic, the real creator of Camille Maupin; and next Gennaro Conti, whom she knew in Rome, and Claude Vignon, a critic of reputation. (Beatrix, Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris) Felicite was a patron of Joseph Bridau, the romantic painter, who was despised by the bourgeois (A Bachelor's Establishment); she felt a liking for Lucien de Rubempre, whom, indeed, she came near marrying; though this circumstance did not prevent her from aiding the poet's mistress, Coralie, the actress; for, at the time of their amours, Felicite des Touches was in high favor at the Gymnase. She was the anonymous collaborator of a comedy into which Leontine Volnys—the little Fay of that time—was introduced; she had intended to write another vaudeville play, in which Coralie was to have made the principal role. When the young actress took to her bed and died, which occurred under the Poirson-Cerfberr[1] management, Felicite paid the expenses of her burial, and was present at the funeral services, which were conducted at Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle.
- ↑ Delestre-Poirson, the vaudeville man, together with A. Cerfberr established the Gymnase-Dramatique, December 20, 1820; with the Cerfberr Brothers, Delestre-Poirson continued the management of it until 1844.
