stood the look that Buckingham fixed upon her.

"If it were a wedding-ring, I would not accept it," she said.

"And yet you were willing to ask him to return to you."

"Oh! duke," cried the young girl in heartbroken accents, "a woman such
as I am is never accepted as a consolation by a man like him."

"You do not think he will return, then?"

"Never," said Miss Grafton, in a choking voice.

"And I grieve to tell you, Mary, that he will find yonder his happiness
destroyed, his mistress lost to him. His honor even has not escaped.
What will be left him, then, Mary, equal to your affection? Do you
answer, Mary, you who know yourself so well."

Miss Grafton placed her white hand on Buckingham's arm, and, while Raoul
was hurrying away with headlong speed, she sang in dying accents the
line from "Romeo and Juliet": "I must begone and live, or stay and die."

As she finished the last word, Raoul had disappeared. Miss Grafton
returned to her own apartment, paler than death itself. Buckingham
availed himself of the arrival of the courier, who had brought the
letter to the king, to write to Madame and to the Comte de Guiche. The
king had not been mistaken, for at two in the morning the tide was at
full flood, and Raoul had embarked for France.

CHAPTER XLVI.

SAINT-AIGNAN FOLLOWS MALICORNE'S ADVICE.

The king most assiduously followed the progress which was made in La
Valliere's portrait; and did so with a care and attention arising as
much from a desire that it should resemble her as from the wish that the
painter should prolong the period of its completion as much as possible.
It was amusing to observe him following the artist's brush, awaiting the
completion of a particular plan, or the result of a combination of
colors, and suggesting various modifications to the painter, which the
latter consented to adopt with the most respectful docility of
disposition. And again, when the artist, following Malicorne's advice,
was a little late in arriving, and when Saint-Aignan had been obliged to
be absent for some time, it was interesting to observe, though no one
witnessed them, those moments of silence full of deep expression, which
united in one sigh two souls most disposed to understand each other, and
who by no means objected to the quiet and meditation they enjoyed
together.

The minutes fled rapidly by, as if on wings: and as the king drew closer
to Louise and bent his burning gaze upon her, a noise was sudde