The King only liked his own houses, and could not bear to be anywhere else.  This was why his visits to Meudon were few and short, and only made from complaisance.  Madame de Maintenon was still more out of her element there.  Although her chamber was everywhere a sanctuary, where only ladies entitled to the most extreme familiarity entered, she always wanted another retreat near at hand entirely inaccessible except to the Duchesse de Bourgogne alone, and that only for a few instants at a time.  Thus she had Saint-Cyr for Versailles and for Marly; and at Marly also a particular retiring place; at Fontainebleau she had her town house.  Seeing therefore that Monseigneur was getting on well, and that a long sojourn it Meudon would be necessary, the upholsterers of the King were ordered to furnish a house in the park which once belonged to the Chancellor le Tellier, but which Monseigneur had bought.

When I arrived at Versailles, I wrote to M. de Beauvilliers at Meudon praying him to apprise the King that I had returned on account of the illness of Monseigneur, and that I would have gone to see him, but that, never having had the small-pox, I was included in the prohibition.  M. de Beauvilliers did as I asked, and sent word back to me that my return had been very well timed, and that the King still forbade me as well as Madame de Saint-Simon to go to Meudon.  This fresh prohibition did not distress me in the least.  I was informed of all that was passing there; and that satisfied me.

There were yet contrasts at Meudon worth noticing.  Mademoiselle Choin never appeared while the King was with Monseigneur, but kept close in her loft.  When the coast was clear she came out, and took up her position at the sick man’s bedside.  All sorts of compliments passed between her and Madame de Maintenon, yet the two ladies never met.  The King asked Madame de Maintenon if she had seen Mademoiselle Choin, and upon learning that she had not, was but ill-pleased.  Therefore Madame de Maintenon sent excuses and apologies to Mademoiselle Choin, and hoped she said to see her soon,—­strange compliments from one chamber to another under the same roof.  They never saw each other afterwards.

It should be observed, that Pere Tellier was also incognito at Meudon, and dwelt in a retired room from which he issued to see the King, but never approached the apartments of Monseigneur.

Versailles presented another scene.  Monseigneur le Duc and Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne held their Court openly there; and this Court resembled the first gleamings of the dawn.  All the Court assembled there; all Paris also; and as discretion and precaution were never French virtues, all Meudon came as well.  People were believed on their word when they declared that they had not entered the apartments of Monseigneur that day, and consequently could not bring the infection.  When the Prince and Princess rose, when they weft to bed, when they dined and supped with the ladies,—­all