Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/281

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TEN YEARS LATER
269

"Who never opens her lips."

"But who, when she does open them, displays a beautiful set of teeth."

"Who may serve as a model for an osteologist."

"Your favor will change her appearance."

"Henrietta!"

"At all events, you have allowed me to be the mistress."

"Alas! yes."

"Well, my choice is made; I impose her upon you, and you must submit."

"Oh! I would accept one of the furies, if you were to insist upon it."

"La Valliere is as gentle as a lamb; do not fear she will ever contradict you when you tell her you love her."

"You are not afraid that I shall say too much to her?"

"It would be for my sake."

"The treaty is agreed to, then ?"

"And signed."

"You will continue to show me the friendship of a brother, the attention of a brother, the gallantry of a monarch, will you not?"

"I will preserve for you a heart which has already become accustomed to beat only at your command."

"Very well; do you not see how we have guaranteed the future by this means ?"

"I hope so."

"Will your mother cease to regard me as an enemy?"

"Yes."

"Will Maria Theresa leave off speaking in Spanish before Monsieur, who has a horror of conversation held in foreign languages, because he always thinks he is being ill-spoken of? and, lastly," continued the princess, "will people persist in attributing a wrongful affection to the king, when the truth is, we can be nothing to each other, except such as may arise from sympathy, free from all mental reservation?"

"Yes, yes," said the king hesitatingly. "But yet other things may still be said of us."

"What can be said, sire? Shall we never be left in tranquillity?"

"People will say I am deficient in taste; but what is my self-respect in comparison with your tranquillity?"

"In comparison with my honor, sire, and that of our