Mlle Past, Mme Present, and Mlle Future

Mlle Past, Mme Present, and Mlle Future is a teasing expression that arranges the women associated with Lucien de Barenton, Count de Chrétien, as a sequence of former, current, and prospective attachments. Madame first uses it while identifying the count’s faults; the Chevalier de Lorraine later repeats the conceit to Marie-Josèphe, who does not understand it. Its recurrence makes a private social joke into a compact commentary on the count’s reputation, while leaving its personal implication for Marie-Josèphe suggestive rather than explicit.

The phrase and its sequence

The expression turns a set of women into a timeline. “Mlle Past, Mme Present, and Mlle Future” gives each a position through a title and a tense: the past and future women remain Mademoiselles, while the present woman is a Madame. The wording is playful, but its organizing principle is clear. A woman’s place in the joke depends on when she is connected to the count, and the sequence makes a succession of attachments sound like a familiar pattern.

The phrase is not presented as the women’s own description of themselves. It belongs to the commentary of people watching and discussing the count. In the room Madame indicates, Mlle de Valentinois and Mlle d’Armagnac are in conversation with Mme de la Fère and the count; the young women are described as flirting outrageously. The expression therefore works alongside visible social behavior: it turns flirtation and association into material for wit, rather than offering an account from any of the women themselves.

Madame’s assessment of the count

Madame introduces the phrase in answer to a question about the count’s faults. She begins with “Mlle Past, Mme Present, and Mlle Future, to begin with,” then singles out the future woman as lacking intelligence and predicts that she will not last long. Her judgment gives the sequence a pointed ending: the supposed next attachment is already treated as temporary. The joke does not merely sort women by time; Madame uses it to suggest that the count’s prospective relationship will repeat a pattern and end quickly.

The exchange also sets this criticism beside a separate concern. After mentioning the three women, Madame says that the count’s religion matters more, and identifies him as an atheist rather than a Protestant. The phrase is thus one item in a larger assessment of his faults, not a complete explanation of his character. Its comic shorthand makes his romantic reputation easy to name, while the turn to religion marks a more serious objection in the same conversation.

Lorraine’s repetition and Marie-Josèphe

The Chevalier de Lorraine gives the expression a more explicit chronology: the count has parted from Mlle Past, Mme Present will soon depart, and he stands poised on the brink of Mlle Future. Where Madame offers a dismissive label, Lorraine spells out its sequence as successive departures and a possible new beginning. His account reinforces the image of a recurring pattern, though the future attachment is still framed as poised or prospective, not as an established relationship.

Marie-Josèphe says she does not understand. Lorraine answers that the count has too much to teach her, while Mlle Future has too little. The remark links the count’s possible future to Marie-Josèphe without directly naming her as Mlle Future. That indirectness is central to the exchange: the phrase can be explained as gossip about the count and at the same time used to tease Marie-Josèphe about what might develop between them. The passage leaves that implication open rather than confirming a new attachment.

Lorraine moves in front of Marie-Josèphe and draws her toward him before asking whether she has had smallpox. The renewed phrase occurs within this encounter, but Lorraine’s physical gesture and question belong to the surrounding scene, not to the expression’s literal meaning. Together they place Marie-Josèphe amid competing forms of attention: Lorraine speaks about the count’s teaching and a future woman, then addresses her directly. The joke’s movement from Madame’s assessment of the count to Lorraine’s pointed explanation gives it its force. It is both a social shorthand for a presumed succession of women and a lightly suggestive way of making Marie-Josèphe consider her own possible place in that pattern.