size,’ his Majesty told me, ’but not more brilliant, more animated or amiable.  Her mouth, admirably moulded, is almost as small as Madame de Montespan’s.  Her pretty, almost round face has something Georgian about it, unless I am mistaken.  She says, and lets you understand, everything she likes; she awaits your replies without interruption; her contradictions preserve urbanity; she is respectful without servility; her pleasant voice, although not of silver, is none the less the voice of a nymph.  In conclusion, I am charmed with her.’”

“Does she believe me hostile to your prosperity, my dear Marquise?” I said at once to Madame de Maintenon, who seemed slightly confused, and answered:  “Mademoiselle de l’Enclos is not personally of that opinion; she had heard certain remarks to that effect in the salons of the town; and I have given her my most explicit assurance that, if you should ever cease to care for me, my inclination and my gratitude would be none the less yours, madame, so long as I should live.”

“You owe me those sentiments,” I resumed, with a trifle too much fire; “I have a right to count on them.  But it is most painful to me, I confess, after having given all my youth to the King, to see him now cool down, even in his courtesy.  The hours which he used to pass with me he gives to you, and it is impossible that this innovation should not seem startling here, since all Paris is informed of it, and Mademoiselle de l’Enclos has discussed it with you.”

“I owe everything that I am to the goodness of the King,” she answered me.  “Would you have me, when he comes to me, bid him go elsewhere, to you or somebody else, it matters not?”

“No, but I should be glad if your countenance did not, at such a moment, expand like a sunflower; I should like you, at the risk of somewhat belying yourself, to have the strength to moderate and restrain that vein of talk and conversation of which you have given yourself the supremacy and monopoly; I wish you had the generosity to show, now and again, less wit.  This sort of regime and abstinence would not destroy you off-hand, and the worst that could result to you from it would be to pass in his eyes for a woman of a variable and intermittent wit; what a great calamity!”

“Ah, madame, what is it you suggest!” the lady in waiting replied to me, almost taking offence.  “I have never been eccentric or singular with any one in the world, and you want me to begin with my King!  It cannot be, I assure you!  Suggest to me reasonable and possible things, and I will enter into all your views with all my heart and without hesitation.”

This reply shocked me to the point of irritation.

“I believed you long to be a simple and disinterested soul,” I said to her, “and it was in this belief that I gave you my cordial affection.  Now I read your heart, and all your projects are revealed to me.  You are not only greedy of respect and consideration, you are ambitious to the point of madness.  The King’s widowhood has awakened all your wild dreams; you confided to me fifteen years ago that the soothsayer of the Marechale d’Albret had predicted for you a sceptre and a crown.”