Suzette finds Mme de Senneterre (Fiévée, Suzette's dowry, Maradan, 1797)

Suzette is a young peasant girl raised by Madame de Senneterre. The French Revolution plunges the de Senneterre family into poverty and forces Mme de Senneterre, whose husband has died and whose son has emigrated, to serve, which at first seems humiliating. So she is hired by a woman named Mme Depréval, who takes her into her home. Mme Depréval is in fact Suzette, the same peasant woman Mme de Senneterre had educated and who had fallen in love with her son: recent events have ruined one while elevating the other, turning French social life upside down. Their reunion is therefore a coup de théâtre and the driving force of the novel, as the two women can each tell the story of their lives.

On the left of the picture, Mme de Senneterre, ashamed of her new condition, reveals herself to her new mistress. Suzette, on the right, reads the letter of recommendation her former teacher has just given her, and can't hold back a gesture of surprise.