Part 68 (1/2)
”What a pity! she ht have won them, and then sold them”
”Sold them!” exclaimed the queen
”Yes; it would have been a dowry for her, and she would not have been obliged to marry without her trousseau, as will probably be the case”
”Really,” answered the queen-: has she no dresses, then?”
And she pronounced these words like a woman who has never been able to understand the inconveniences of a slenderly filled purse
”Stay, look at her Heaven forgivethat she had on this ed to keep clean, thanks to the care the king took of her, in sheltering her from the rain”
At the veryentered the room The two queens would not perhaps have observed his arrival, so completely were they occupied in their ill-natured remarks, had not Mada up facing the gallery, exhibited certain signs of confusion, and then said a feords to the courtiers who surrounded her, who immediately dispersed This movement induced Madame to look towards the door, and at thatAt this moment La Valliere, who had hitherto kept her eyes fixed upon the gallery, suddenly cast thenificently and in thewith Monsieur and the Duc de Roquelaure, Monsieur on his right, and the Duc de Roquelaure on his left The king advanced, in the first place, towards the queens, to whoraceful respect He took his mother's hand and kissed it, addressed a few complian to make the round of the assembly La Valliere was saluted in the same manner as the others, but with neither more nor less attention His majesty then returned to hishad only addressed soirl who had been so particularly noticed in the , they immediately drew their own conclusion to account for this coldness ofmay have taken a sudden fancy to her, that fancy had already disappeared One thing, however,the number of the courtiers, M Fouquet was to be seen; and his respectfully attentive irl in the itated her
M Fouquet was just on the point,in a more friendly manner with Mademoiselle de la Valliere, when M Colbert approached, and after having bowed to Fouquet with all the formality of respectful politeness, he seemed to take up a post beside La Valliere, for the purpose of entering into conversation with her Fouquet ierly devoured by the eyes of Montalais and Malicorne, who ed their observations on the subject De Guiche, standing within the embrasure of one of the s, saw no one but Madalanced at La Valliere, De Guiche's eyes, following Madairl La Valliere instinctively felt herself sinking beneath the weight of all these different looks, inspired, so to cos, not a kind word fro No one could possibly express theThe queen-ht forward, on which the lottery-tickets were placed, two hundred in nued Madame de Motteville to read the list of the names It was a matter of course that this list had been drawn out in strict accordance with the laws of etiquette The king's name was first on the list, next the queen-mother, then the queen, Monsieur, Madame, and so on All hearts throbbed anxiously as the list was read out; more than three hundred persons had been invited, and each of them was anxious to learn whether his or her na listened with as much attention as the others, and when the last name had been pronounced, he noticed that La Valliere had been omitted from the list Every one, of course, re flushed as if ned, as usual, exhibited nothing of the sort While the list was being read, the king had not taken his eyes off the young girl, who seemed to expand, as it were, beneath the happy influence she felt was shed around her, and as delighted and too pure in spirit for any other thought than that of love to find an entrance either to herself-denial by the fixity of his attention, the king showed La Valliere how much he appreciated its delicacy When the list was finished, the different faces of those who had been ootten fully expressed their disappointst the riotten, ”Cannot we contrive to arrange et us?” to which a sence from Mademoiselle Aure, replied: ”Certainly we can”
The tickets were distributed to each according to the nu received his first, next the queen-mother, then Monsieur, then the queen and Madame, and so on After this, Anne of Austria opened a sraved upon small balls of est of herone of the balls out of it The eager expectation of the throng, amidst all the tediously slow preparations, was rather that of cupidity than curiosity Saint-Aignan bent towards Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente to whisper to her, ”Since we have each a number, let us unite our two chances The bracelet shall be yours if I win, and if you are successful, deign to give me but one look of your beautiful eyes”
”No,” said Athenais, ”if you win the bracelet, keep it, every one for hinan, ”and I will punish you by a quatrain:- ”Beautiful Iris, to my vows You are too opposed-”
”Silence,” said Athenais, ”you will preventnuirl who had drawn the !” exclai has won,” repeated the queen, delightedly
”Oh! the king! your dream!” said Mada was the only one who did not exhibit any satisfaction He merely thanked Fortune for what she had done for hiirl who had been chosen as her proxy Then receiving froer desire of the whole asse the bracelets, he said, ”Are these bracelets really beautiful, then?”
”Look at thee for yourself”
The king looked at them, and said, ”Yes, indeed, an admirable medallion What perfect finish!+”
Queen Maria Theresa easily saw, and that, too at the very first glance, that the king would not offer the bracelets to her; but, as he did not seeree in the world disposed to offer the sat down Thethe courtiers approached, one by one, for the purpose of ad more closely the beautiful piece of work's permission, was handed about from person to person Immediately, every one, connoisseurs or not, uttered various exclaratulations There was, in fact, so for everybody to ad for others The ladies present visibly displayed their ientle escaped, ”one would almost think that you wore bracelets as the Sabines used to do; hand them round for a while for the inspection of the ladies, who seeht, an excuse for understanding such matters!”
These words appeared to Madaathered, besides, this happy belief frolances of the queen- itation, hastened to place the bracelets in the hands of the queen, Maria Theresa, who, knowing too well, poor woned for her, hardly looked at them, and almost immediately passed them on to Madaave the bracelets a long look of anxious and almost covetous desire She then handed the jewels to those ladies ere near her, pronouncing this single word, but with an accent which orth a long phrase, ”Magnificent!”
The ladies who had received the bracelets fro as they chose to exa the was tranquilly conversing with De Guiche and Fouquet, rather passively letting the Accustomed to the set form of ordinary phrases, his ear, like that of all men who exercise an incontestable superiority over others, merely selected from the conversations held in various directions the indispensable hich requires reply His attention, however, was now elsewhere, for it wandered as his eyes did
Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente was the last of the ladies inscribed for tickets; and, as if she had ranked according to her name upon the list, she had only Montalais and La Valliere near her When the bracelets reached these two latter, no one appeared to take any further notice of them The humble hands which for a moment touched these jewels, deprived them, for the time, of their importance-a circumstance which did not, however, prevent Montalais froht of the beautiful stones still nificent workmanshi+p It is evident that if she were compelled to decide between the pecuniary value and the artistic beauty, Montalais would unhesitatingly have preferred diamonds to cameos, and her disinclination, therefore, to pass thereat La Valliere fixed a look almost of indifference upon the jewels
”Oh, how beautiful, how nificent these bracelets are!” exclaio into ecstasies about them, Louise! You are no true wo girl, with an accent of themelancholy; ”but why desire that which can never, by any possibility, be ours?”
The king, his head bent forward, was listening to what Louise was saying Hardly had the vibration of her voice reached his ear than he rose, radiant with delight, and passing across the whole assembly, from the place where he stood, to La Valliere, ”You are mistaken, mademoiselle,” he said, ”you are a woht to wear jewels, which are a woman's appurtenance”
”Oh, sire!” said La Valliere, ”your majesty will not absolutely believe in my modesty?”