and recollection of things past than I myself
can have. I have not long been waked out of the tranced life I formerly
lived."

"I have wept more tears for the little brother--broken in intellect and
exiled farther than we--than for my father and mother. They were at
peace. But you, poor child, what hope was there for you? Was the person
who had you in his charge kind to you? He must have been. You have grown
to be such a man as I would have you!"

"Everybody has been kind to me, my sister."

"Could they look in that face and be unkind? All the thousand questions
I have to ask must be deferred until the king sees you. I cannot wait
for him to see you! Mademoiselle de Choisy, send a message at once to
the king!"

The lady in waiting withdrew to the door, and the royal duchess quivered
with eager anticipation.

"We have had pretended dauphins, to add insult to exile. You may not
take the king unaware as you took me! He will have proofs as plain as
his Latin verse. But you will find his Majesty all that a father could
be to us, Louis! I think there never was a man so unselfish!--except,
indeed, my husband, whom you cannot see until he returns."

Again I kissed my sister's hand. We gazed at each other, our different
breeding still making strangeness between us, across which I yearned;
and she examined me.

Many a time since I have reproached myself for not improving those
moments with the most candid and right-minded princess in Europe, by
forestalling my enemies. I should have told her of my weakness instead
of sunning my strength in the love of her. I should have made her see my
actual position, and the natural antagonism of the king, who would not
so readily see a strong personal resemblance when that was not
emphasized by some mental stress, as she and three very different men
had seen it.

Instead of making cause with her, however, I said over and
over--"Marie-Therese! Marie-Therese!"--like a homesick boy come again to
some familiar presence. "You are the only one of my family I have seen
since waking; except Louis Philippe."

"Don't speak of that man, Louis! I detest the house of Orleans as a
Christian should detest only sin! His father doomed ours to death!"

"But he is not to blame for what his father did."

"What do you mean by waking?"

"Coming to my senses."

"All that we shall hear about when the king sees you."

"I knew your picture on the snuffbox."

"What snuffbox?"

"The one in the quee