she must meet her royal admirer that evening at the opera. He should then be put in possession of the facts, and woe to the traitress when he knew the truth!
"We shall see, madame!" said the lady, between her small white teeth, under the sweet, calm face, and crossing herself as she passed a crucifix in the street. "We shall see! A lettre de cachet is a very compromising billet-doux, but it may be sent to a lady quite as appropriately as a gentleman. That reminds me! Business first—pleasure afterwards; gratitude to-day—vengeance to-night. I will preserve that brave Musketeer, if it costs me my rank and my reputation. Oh! if men were all prompt, generous, honourable, like him, how differently we poor women should behave; I wonder if we should be much better or much worse?"
The maid walking at her side thought she was repeating an "Ave," and appreciating the temptations of her mistress, greatly admired so edifying a display of piety under difficulties.
Madame de Parabére was perfectly right in believing she would have no opportunity for conversation with the Regent till they met at the opera. The whole of that prince's morning was employed in struggling with the drowsy fiend who on a sensualist's couch represents sleep, and is such a hideous mockery of its original. At these hours the tendency to apoplexy, which the Duke strengthened and pampered by indulgence, displayed itself in alarming colours, and none of his attendants could have been surprised when, a few years later, the destroyer swooped down and carried off his prey at a stroke. It took him many an hour of heavy, unhealthy, and disturbed slumber to regain sufficient clearness of mind for the duties of the day, but once in exercise, his intellect, which was doubtless above mediocrity, soon reasserted itself, and the Prince, shaved, bathed, dressed, and seated over a pile of papers in his cabinet, seemed quite capable of grasping the political helm, and guiding with a steady hand the destinies of France. But it was only by a strong mental effort he thus overcame the effects of his pernicious habits; such an effort as, when often repeated, saps the vital energies beyond the power of nature to restore them, and the wasting effects of which are best conveyed by
