Marie-Josèphe de la Croix and Mademoiselle (Lotte)

Marie-Josèphe de la Croix and Mademoiselle d’Orléans, Lotte are connected by a warm, practical intimacy that crosses the formal boundaries of court service without making those boundaries disappear. Lotte welcomes Marie-Josèphe into her apartments, looks after her appearance and health, and insists that she take part in court life; Marie-Josèphe, in turn, notices and tends to Lotte’s discomfort. Their bond is clearest not in declarations but in small acts of attention, particularly the exchange of care between them amid the demands of a crowded court.

A relationship within the court

Marie-Josèphe is present beside Lotte in settings governed by rank and ceremony. At a court performance, she stands behind Lotte while the King, Pope Innocent, and other distinguished guests occupy the front rows. The seating arrangement places the women within the same public occasion but in different positions in its hierarchy. Lotte fans herself as the salon grows warm; Marie-Josèphe sees a drop of sweat on her cheek and delicately dabs it away with her handkerchief. The gesture is attentive and personal, offered while they remain inside an elaborate public ritual.

That moment makes their care reciprocal rather than one-directional. Elsewhere, Lotte uses her influence and resources to assist Marie-Josèphe, but Marie-Josèphe is not merely the recipient of Lotte’s kindness. She attends to Lotte’s physical comfort without being asked, responding to a small visible need in the middle of a formal gathering. Their closeness therefore appears through an ordinary exchange: one woman fans herself, the other notices and helps.

Welcome, concern, and competing duties

When Marie-Josèphe reaches Lotte’s apartments, she is breathless and damp with sweat. Lotte is among ladies-in-waiting and friends, while Mlle d’Armagnac is trying to arrange her hair. Lotte leaves that activity to greet Marie-Josèphe and raises her from her curtsy. Her questions about where Marie-Josèphe has been and where her attendant is convey familiarity with her circumstances as well as immediate interest in her arrival. Marie-Josèphe answers that she has been tending to the sea monster.

Lotte’s response is characteristically practical. She asks that a servant send the creature a fish and calls for Odelette, while also noticing that Marie-Josèphe is not dressed for the King’s luncheon. When Marie-Josèphe says Odelette is unwell and offers to tend to her, Lotte refuses to let her abandon their plans. She directs that broth and warm flannel be taken to Odelette and insists that Marie-Josèphe attend her and go to the picnic. The exchange shows Lotte balancing concern for an absent attendant with a determination to keep Marie-Josèphe beside her. Her solution does not dismiss the illness: she arranges care for Odelette while asking Marie-Josèphe to accept care and company herself.

Clothing, generosity, and unequal means

Marie-Josèphe says she has nothing suitable to wear. Lotte responds by opening her cupboard, pulling out dresses, and choosing a beautiful brocade gown. Other ladies help strip and dress Marie-Josèphe, leaving her only a moment to blush and worry that they might notice a rolled-up towel beneath her clothes. Lotte’s kindness thus brings its own exposure: receiving help means being dressed by a group of women and feeling newly conscious of what she has tried to conceal.

The gown is Lotte’s best court dress from the previous summer. She explains that it once fitted her when she was a little thinner, reassures Marie-Josèphe that she is not as scrawny as some fashionable ladies, and says the current season’s petticoat will make the year-old dress look fine. Her generosity is concrete and immediate: she gives Marie-Josèphe clothing and uses her knowledge of court fashion to make it wearable. Marie-Josèphe is grateful, but she also wonders whether she will ever own a new dress of her own. She feels ashamed of that envy, yet the thought exposes the material difference that kindness cannot remove. Lotte can offer a gown from her cupboard; Marie-Josèphe depends on that offer and remains uncertain when she will have something new herself.

Companionship and its limits

Lotte’s insistence that Marie-Josèphe accompany her to the Menagerie turns assistance into inclusion. Marie-Josèphe is tired and has been tending to the sea monster, but Lotte does not treat her as someone whose place is only beside her work. She expects her to dress, join the picnic, and share an occasion at court. The invitation carries both affection and authority: Lotte decides what Marie-Josèphe should do, even as she provides the practical means for her to do it.

Their relationship remains shaped by circumstance. Marie-Josèphe stands behind Lotte at a performance, needs a borrowed court gown, and has responsibilities that pull her toward the sea monster and Odelette. Lotte can make room for her in her apartments and in courtly outings, but the evidence does not suggest that this welcome dissolves rank or financial dependence. Instead, the friendship takes form within those limits. Lotte’s concern makes court life more accessible to Marie-Josèphe, while Marie-Josèphe’s attentive gestures show that she contributes care of her own. Together, these episodes present their bond as an everyday refuge built from welcome, practical help, and mutual notice.