st
certainly have grown in stature, beauty and grace, as they had promised
to do the last time Monsieur had seen them.

What had first struck the king was a certain constraint in the voices of
the two interlocutors. The voice of Monsieur was calm and natural when
he spoke thus; while that of M. de Mazarin jumped by a note and a half
to reply above the diapason of his usual voice. It might have been said
that he wished that voice to strike, at the end of the _salon_, any ear
that was too distant.

"Monseigneur," replied he, "Mesdemoiselles de Mazarin have still to
finish their education: they have duties to fulfill, and a position to
make. An abode in a young and brilliant court would dissipate them a
little."

Louis, at this last sentence, smiled sadly. The court was young, it was
true, but the avarice of the cardinal had taken good care that it should
not be brilliant.

"You have nevertheless no intention," replied Monsieur, "to cloister
them or make them _borgeoises?_"

"Not at all," replied the cardinal, forcing his Italian pronunciation in
such a manner that, from soft and velvety as it was, it became sharp and
vibrating; "not at all: I have a full and fixed intention to marry them,
and that as well as I shall be able."

"Parties will not be wanting, monsieur le cardinal," replied Monsieur,
with a _bonhomie_ worthy of one tradesman congratulating another.

"I hope not, monseigneur, and with reason, as God has been pleased to
give them grace, intelligence, and beauty."

During this conversation, Louis XIV., conducted by Madame, accomplished,
as we have described, the circle of presentations.

"Mademoiselle Auricule," said the princess, presenting to his majesty
a fat, fair girl of two-and-twenty, who at a village _fete_ might
have been taken for a peasant in Sunday finery,--"the daughter of my
music-mistress."

The king smiled. Madame had never been able to extract four correct
notes from either viol or harpsichord.

"Mademoiselle Aure de Montalais," continued Madame; "a young lady of
rank, and my good attendant."

This time it was not the king that smiled; it was the young lady
presented, because, for the first time in her life, she heard, given to
her by Madame, who generally showed no tendency to spoil her, such an
honorable qualification.

Our old acquaintance Montalais, therefore, made his majesty a profound
courtesy, the more respectful from the necessity she was under of
concealing certain co