On each side of the empty fireplace was a little green-covered arm-chair, the one for madame and the other reserved for the use of the king.  A small three-legged stool between them was heaped with her work-basket and her tapestry.  On the chair which was furthest from the door, with her back turned to the light, madame was sitting as the young officer entered.  It was her favourite position, and yet there were few women of her years who had so little reason to fear the sun, for a healthy life and active habits had left her with a clear skin and delicate bloom which any young beauty of the court might have envied.  Her figure was graceful and queenly, her gestures and pose full of a natural dignity, and her voice, as he had already remarked, most sweet and melodious.  Her face was handsome rather than beautiful, set in a statuesque classical mould, with broad white forehead, firm, delicately sensitive mouth, and a pair of large serene gray eyes, earnest and placid in repose, but capable of reflecting the whole play of her soul, from the merry gleam of humour to the quick flash of righteous anger.  An elevating serenity was, however, the leading expression of her features, and in that she presented the strongest contrast to her rival, whose beautiful face was ever swept by the emotion of the moment, and who gleamed one hour and shadowed over the next like a corn-field in the wind.  In wit and quickness of tongue it is true that De Montespan had the advantage, but the strong common-sense and the deeper nature of the elder woman might prove in the end to be the better weapon.  De Catinat, at the moment, without having time to notice details, was simply conscious that he was in the presence of a very handsome woman, and that her large pensive eyes were fixed critically upon him, and seemed to be reading his thoughts as they had never been read before.

“I think that I have already seen you, sir, have I not?”

“Yes, madame, I have once or twice had the honour of attending upon you though it may not have been my good fortune to address you.”

“My life is so quiet and retired that I fear that much of what is best and worthiest at the court is unknown to me.  It is the curse of such places that evil flaunts itself before the eye and cannot be overlooked, while the good retires in its modesty, so that at times we scarce dare hope that it is there.  You have served, monsieur?”

“Yes, madame.  In the Lowlands, on the Rhine, and in Canada.”

“In Canada!  Ah!  What nobler ambition could woman have than to be a member of that sweet sisterhood which was founded by the holy Marie de l’Incarnation and the sainted Jeanne le Ber at Montreal?  It was but the other day that I had an account of them from Father Godet des Marais.  What joy to be one of such a body, and to turn from the blessed work of converting the heathen to the even more precious task of nursing back health and strength into those of God’s warriors who have been struck down in the fight with Satan!”