one with me, comte Jean entered.
After the usual salutations, he exclaimed, "I have just seen a most
lovely creature."

"Who is she?" inquired his majesty, hastily.

"No high-born dame," answered comte Jean, "but the daughter of a
cabinet-maker at Versailles; I think I never beheld such matchless
beauty."

"Always excepting present company," replied the king.

"Assuredly," rejoined my brother-in-law, "but, sire, the beauteous
object of whom I speak is a nymph in grace, a sylph in airy lightness,
and an angel in feature."

"Comte Jean seems deeply smitten indeed, madam," exclaimed Louis XV,
turning towards me.

"Not I indeed," replied my brother-in-law, "my lovemaking days are
over."

"Oh! oh!" cried the king, smiling, "_fructus belli_."

"What does your majesty say?" inquired I.

"Nay, let the comte explain," cried Louis XV.

"The king observed, my dear sister," answered comte Jean, "that
ladies--but, in fact, I can neither explain the observation, nor was it
intended for you--so let it rest."

He continued for some time to jest with comte Jean upon his supposed
passion for the fair daughter of the cabinet-maker; and the king,
whilst affecting the utmost indifference, took every pains to obtain the
fullest particulars as to where this peerless beauty might be found.

When my brother-in-law and myself were alone, he said to me, "I played
my part famously, did I not? How eagerly the bait was swallowed!"

"Explain yourself," said I.

"My good sister, what I have said respecting this perfection of
loveliness is no fiction, neither have I at all exaggerated either her
perfections or her beauty, and I trust by her aid we shall obliterate
from the king's mind every recollection of the syren of the
_Parc-aux-Cerfs_."

"Heaven grant it," exclaimed I.

"My dear sister," replied comte Jean, "heaven has nothing to do with
such things."

Alas! he was mistaken, and Providence only employed the present occasion
as a means of causing us to be precipitated into the very abyss of ruin
we had dug for others. On the following morning, Chamilly came to me
to inquire whether it was my pleasure that the present scheme should be
carried into execution.

"Yes, yes," answered I eagerly, "by all means, the more we direct the
inclinations of the king for the present, the better for him and for us
likewise."

Armed with my consent, Chamilly dispatched to the unhappy girl that
_madame_, whose skill in such delicate commiss