which, if
I may leave you for an instant, I will write in the anteroom."

She swept out with triumph in her eyes. It had been a terrible fight,
but all the greater the credit of her victory. She took a little pink
slip of paper from an inlaid desk, and dashed off a few words upon it.
They were: "Should Madame de Maintenon have any message for his Majesty,
he will be for the next few hours in the room of Madame de Montespan."
This she addressed to her rival, and it was sent on the spot, together
with the king's order, by the hands of the little black page.

CHAPTER XI.

THE SUN REAPPEARS.

For nearly a week the king was constant to his new humour. The routine
of his life remained unchanged, save that it was the room of the frail
beauty, rather than of Madame de Maintenon, which attracted him in the
afternoon. And in sympathy with this sudden relapse into his old life,
his coats lost something of their sombre hue, and fawn-colour,
buff-colour, and lilac began to replace the blacks and the blues.
A little gold lace budded out upon his hats also and at the trimmings of
his pockets, while for three days on end his _prie-dieu_ at the royal
chapel had been unoccupied. His walk was brisker, and he gave a
youthful flourish to his cane as a defiance to those who had seen in his
reformation the first symptoms of age. Madame had known her man well
when she threw out that artful insinuation.

And as the king brightened, so all the great court brightened too.
The _salons_ began to resume their former splendour, and gay coats and
glittering embroidery which had lain in drawers for years were seen once
more in the halls of the palace. In the chapel, Bourdaloue preached in
vain to empty benches, but a ballet in the grounds was attended by the
whole court, and received with a frenzy of enthusiasm. The Montespan
ante-room was crowded every morning with men and women who had some suit
to be urged, while her rival's chambers were as deserted as they had
been before the king first turned a gracious look upon her. Faces which
had been long banished the court began to reappear in the corridors and
gardens unchecked and unrebuked, while the black cassock of the Jesuit
and the purple soutane of the bishop were less frequent colours in the
royal circle.

But the Church party, who, if they were the champions of bigotry, were
also those of virtue, were never seriously alarmed at this relapse.
The grave eyes of priest or of pr