nes; all
thought she loved him in those far-off days. And, _ciel!_ Hortense de
Foy was handsome enough to suit any man's taste. I see her now as she
was then, beautiful as the morning. Why, I wonder, did she marry De
Vannes's cousin and friend, Roquemaure, instead of him?"

Louvois shrugged his shoulders--though as respectfully as a man must
perform such an action before a superior--then he said with a slight
and also respectful smile, the smile of the dependent:

"Your Majesty's royal ancestor said,'_Souvent femme varie_.' That may
explain why Mademoiselle de Foy married one man, when the world, when
even your Majesty," with subtle flattery, "thought she loved another."

"My ancestor knew what he was talking about when he discussed
womankind," Louis remarked. "Well, perhaps his saying explains the
caprices of Hortense. I have not seen her for years. She rests ever in
her provincial manoir. It may be she has changed much--her beauty
vanished."

"If so, your Majesty, at least she has transmitted it to her daughter.
I have seen Mademoiselle de Roquemaure, and she is beautiful as ever
her mother could have been. She was the guest of Madame de Chevreuse
last summer."

"I would I had seen her, too. She would have recalled Hortense de Foy
as she was in her youth; perhaps," with what seemed to the wily
minister something like a sigh, "my own youth, too." Then changing
his tone back to his ordinary one, he asked: "There is a son, the
present Marquis de Roquemaure; why does he so rarely come to court?"

"He thinks, your Majesty, of but two things: first, the inheritance of
the Duc de Vannes, of which, through his father, he is the heir on
arriving at his thirtieth year; and, secondly, of his horses and
hounds. But when he has attained his majority and has the duke's
fortune, he proposes to present himself to your Majesty. And----"

The speaker was interrupted by a scratching at the door, which brought
a smile to both their faces, while Louis, starting up from his chair,
exclaimed:

"_Ciel!_ It is the half hour, and Malice is hungry"; and, thrusting
his hand into the pocket of his velvet coat, he produced come crumbs
of cake, which he presented to a little spaniel that rushed in and
leaped about him as Louvois opened the door.[4] Then, turning to the
minister, he said:

"Write to the Marquis de Roquemaure that the king desires his company
at court for the _fetes_ of the Epiphany. Also write that he desires
that Mademo