culty, the injustice of
your enemies. I have been enraged with myself for having been deceived
regarding you: I wish to repair my wrongs. Enlightened by the opinion
of the marechale de Mirepoix, I have not hesitated to approach you under
her auspices, and our first meeting has so happily furnished me with an
opportunity of appreciating you, that I would not delay any longer the
pleasure of making you a personal avowal of my past sentiments, and of
those with which you now inspire me."

The tone in which madame de Flaracourt uttered these words was so
gracious and so persuasive, that I could not resist the pleasure of
embracing her. She returned my kiss with the same eagerness, and would
not listen to my thanks.

"All is explained between us," she continued, "let us forget the past,
and let us do as if meeting for the first time to-day; we henceforward
date this as the first of our acquaintance."

"The affability with which you have presented yourself to me," I
replied, "does not permit me to believe that I have only known you from
this morning; I am in an illusion which will only allow me to look on
our recent alliance as an ancient friendship."

After having exchanged some conversation of the same tenor, we talked of
my situation as regarded the other females of the court.

"They hate you for two reasons," said the countess: "in the first
place, because you have made a conquest which all the world envies you;
secondly because you are not one of us. There is not one family who can
lean on you in virtue of the rights of blood, or alliances which stand
instead of it. You have superseded a woman who more than any other could
have a claim to your good fortune: she is sister to the prime minister,
who has in her train, like Lucifer, more than a third part of heaven,
for all the courtiers hang on her brother.

"On the other hand, we are not accustomed to remain so long in
opposition to the will of the king. Such a resistance is not natural to
us; it weighs upon us, it harms us, the favor of our master being our
chief good. We are only something thro' him, and when combatting against
him we have neither the courage nor the perseverance. Thus you may be
very certain that the majority of women who oppose you do it against the
grain: and if you add to this that they are incessantly exposed to the
murmurs and complaints of their husbands, sons, brothers, and lovers,
you will easily be convinced that they only aspire to findi