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Rh a somewhat sullen silence, "you have not seen my new dress: it is perfect. It ought so to be, for I had his Grace's advice upon the subject."

At this moment a noise was heard, as if of coming guests.

"How is this?" said the Duchesse. "I had given orders that no one should be admitted."

"But we," replied the tallest of two cavaliers who entered muffled up in cloaks, "would only take a denial from your own lips."

"Ah, your Grace," exclaimed Madame de Mercœur, "how easy it is to command when the command can only be obeyed with pleasure!"

"Are you," said the King—for the visitors were Louis himself, and his brother, the Comte d'Artois—and addressing himself more especially to Mademoiselle Mancini, "preparing for the fatigues of to-morrow?"

"Not so," she replied; "but we were closeted to talk over old times with old friends."

Francesca smiled; for it could not but occur to her how little these said old times had been mentioned, the whole conversation having turned exclusively on present topics. Again, she felt there was nothing in common between them; and how painful it is to discover this, when our attachment seems to ourselves a thing of course! This,