The Two Amperes

Jean-Jacques Ampere, as has been said, had a genius for friendship. He never married, but in the course of his life he had two extremely characteristic affections for women. The object of the first was Mme. Recamier, whose acquaintance he made in his twentieth year (in 1820), and to whom he remained devoted until her death, in 1849. The object of the second was a certain Mme. L—-, with whom he became intimate in 1853, in Rome. This lady was a young widow, in feeble health, obliged to spend her winters in the south, where she was accompanied by her parents and her little girl.