Mademoiselle

What is understood by this word when it stands alone is Mdlle. de Montpensier, daughter of Gaston, duc d’Orléans, and cousin of Louis xIV. Anne Marie Louis d’Orléans, duche e de Montpensier, connue sous le nom de mademoiselle , née à Paris, 1627; m. 1693; était fille de Gaston d’Orléans frère de Louis XIII.—Bouillet. Mademoiselle , the French lady’s-maid, waiting on Lady Fanciful; full of the gro est flattery, and advising her ladyship to the most unwarrantable intrigues. Lady Fanciful says, “The French are certainly the prettiest and most obliging people. They say the most acceptable, well-mannered things, and never flatter.” When induced to do what her conscience and education revolted at, she would playfully rebuke Mdlle. with, “Ah! la méchante Françoise!” to which Mdlle. would respond, “Ah! la belle Anglaise!”—Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife (1697).