Angelique warmly.

Amelie knew enough by report of the French Court to cause her to shrink
instinctively, as from a repulsive insect, at the name of the mistress
of Louis XV. She trembled at the thought of Angelique's infatuation, or
perversity, in suffering herself to be attracted by the glitter of the
vices of the Royal Intendant.

"Angelique!" exclaimed she, "I have heard things of the Intendant that
would make me tremble for you, were you in earnest."

"But I am in earnest! I mean to win and wear the Intendant of New
France, to show my superiority over the whole bevy of beauties competing
for his hand. There is not a girl in Quebec but would run away with him
tomorrow."

"Fie, Angelique! such a libel upon our sex! You know better. But you
cannot love him?"

"Love him? No!" Angelique repeated the denial scornfully. "Love him! I
never thought of love and him together! He is not handsome, like your
brother Le Gardeur, who is my beau-ideal of a man I could love; nor has
the intellect and nobility of Colonel Philibert, who is my model of a
heroic man. I could love such men as them. But my ambition would not be
content with less than a governor or royal intendant in New France. In
old France I would not put up with less than the King himself!"

Angelique laughed at her own extravagance, but she believed in it all
the same. Amelie, though shocked at her wildness, could not help smiling
at her folly.

"Have you done raving?" said she; "I have no right to question your
selection of a lover or doubt your power, Angelique. But are you
sure there exists no insurmountable obstacle to oppose these high
aspirations? It is whispered that the Intendant has a wife, whom he
keeps in the seclusion of Beaumanoir. Is that true?"

The words burnt like fire. Angelique's eyes flashed out daggers. She
clenched her delicate hands until her nails drew blood from her velvet
palms. Her frame quivered with suppressed passion. She grasped her
companion fiercely by the arm, exclaiming,--"You have hit the secret
now, Amelie! It was to speak of that I sought you out this morning, for
I know you are wise, discreet, and every way better than I. It is all
true what I have said, and more too, Amelie. Listen! The Intendant has
made love to me with pointed gallantry that could have no other meaning
but that he honorably sought my hand. He has made me talked of and hated
by my own sex, who envied his preference of me. I was living in the
most gor