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" congratulate you on your brilliant conquest," said Madame de Soissons, as she was seated in the usual tête-à-tête with her hostess which concluded the day. "Are you not afraid of the consequences of the despair of your five hundred rivals? As a friend, I advise you, after you are Duchess of Buckingham, never to move out without a guard, and to drink but from a Venetian glass; thus taking all possible precautions against 'the poison or the steel.'" "When I am Duchess, I will take all the care you advise; but it is waste of time guarding against evils which never can arrive." "Never! What will you wager that the first letter I receive from you in France does not contain a full account of all the preparations for your marriage at least, if not of the marriage itself?"