‘If I could only speak with him!’ I said.  ’For my husband’s sake I used to have some influence with him.  I would give the world to meet him before he sees the intendant and his wife.  Could we contrive it?’

In a few moments we had settled it.  Happily we were both in full dress, in case friends should have dropped in on us.  Both of us had the entree at Madame de Longueville’s, and it would be quite correct to pay her our compliments on the return of her brother.

I believe Solivet a little questioned whether one so headstrong had not better be left to himself, but he allowed that no one had ever done as much with Armand d’Aubepine as my husband and myself, and when he heard my urgent wish to forestall the intendant, whose wife was Cecile’s old tyrant, Mademoiselle de Gringrimeau, he thought it worth the venture.  He said I was a warlike Gildippe still, and that he would stand by me.

So the coachman received his orders; we fell in among the long line of carriages, and in due time made our way to the salon, where Madame le Duchesse de Longueville sat enthroned in all the glory of her fair hair and beautiful complexion, toying with her fan as she conversed with the Prince of Marsillac, the most favoured at that time of a whole troop of admirers and devoted slaves.  She was not an intellectual woman herself, but she had beyond all others who I ever saw the power of leading captive the very ablest men.

The hero had not yet come from the palace, and having made our compliments, and received a gracious smile and nod, we stood aside, waiting and conversing with others, and in some anxiety lest the Prince should be detained at the Louvre.  However, before long he came, and his keen eagle face, and the stars on his breast, flashed on us, as he returned the greetings of one group after another in his own peculiar manner, haughty, and yet not without a certain charm.

A troop of officers followed, mingling with the gay crowd of ladies and gentlemen, and among them Solivet pointed out the Count d’Aubepine.  I should not otherwise have known him, so much was he altered in these six years, changing him from youth to manhood.  His hair was much darker, he had a small pointed beard, and the childish contour of cheek and chin had passed away, and he was altogether developed, but there was something that did not reassure me.  He seemed to have lost, with his boyhood, that individuality which we had once loved, and to have passed into an ordinary officer, like all the rest of the gay, dashing, handsome, but often hardened-looking men, who were enjoying their triumphant return into ladies’ society.

Solivet had accosted him.  I saw his eye glance anxiously round, then he seemed reassured, and came towards me with some eagerness, greeting me with some compliment, I know not what, on my appearance; but I cut this as short as I could be saying:  ’Know you, Monsieur, why I am here?  I am come to ask you to bestow a little half-hour on one who is longing to see you.’