ard for the king, mine should
be drawn.

'I believe you,' he answered kindly, laying his hand on my shoulder.
'Not by reason of your words--Heaven knows I have heard vows enough
to-day!--but because I have proved you. And now,' he continued, speaking
in an altered tone and looking at me with a queer smile, 'now I suppose
you are perfectly satisfied? You have nothing more to wish for, my
friend?'

I looked aside in a guilty fashion, not daring to prefer on the top of
all his kindness a further petition. Moreover, His Majesty might have
other views; or on this point Turenne might have proved obstinate. In
a word, there was nothing in what had happened, or on M. de Rosny's
communication, to inform me whether the wish of my heart was to be
gratified or not.

But I should have known that great man better than to suppose that he
was one to promise without performing, or to wound a friend when he
could not salve the hurt. After enjoying my confusion for a time he
burst into a great shout of laughter, and taking me familiarly by the
shoulders, turned me towards the door. 'There, go!' he said. 'Go up the
passage. You will find a door on the right, and a door on the left. You
will know which to open.'

Forbidding me to utter a syllable, he put me out. In the passage, where
I fain would have stood awhile to collect my thoughts, I was affrighted
by sounds which warned me that the king was returning that way. Fearing
to be surprised by him in such a state of perturbation, I hurried to the
end of the passage, where I discovered, as I had been told, two doors.

They were both closed, and there was nothing about either of them to
direct my choice. But M. de Rosny was correct in supposing that I had
not forgotten the advice he had offered me on the day when he gave me
so fine a surprise in his own house--'When you want a good wife, M.
de Marsac, turn to the right!' I remembered the words, and without a
moment's hesitation--for the king and his suite were already entering
the passage--I knocked boldly, and scarcely waiting for an invitation,
went in.

Fanchette was by the door, but stood aside with a grim smile, which I
was at liberty to accept as a welcome or not. Mademoiselle, who had been
seated on the farther side of the table, rose as I entered, and we stood
looking at one another. Doubtless she waited for me to speak first;
while I on my side was so greatly taken aback by the change wrought in
her by the Court dress she was