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Rh LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. 219 attendance on you, and I should have begged Mademoiselle de la Valliere to take my place with your royal highness, but — " seeing that madame frowned, she added, "I have not done so." "Why did you not do so?" inquired madame. ''Because poor La Valliere seemed so happy to have her liberty for a whole evening and night, too, that I did not feel courageous enough to ask her to take my place." "What, is she so delighted as that?" inquired madame, struck by these words. "She is wild with delight; she, who is always so melan- choly, was singing like a bird. Besides, your highness knows how much she detests going out, and also that her character has a spice of wildness in it." "Oh, oh!" thought madame, "this extreme delight hardly seems natural to me." "She has already made all her preparations for dining in her own room tete-a-ette with one of her favorite books. And then, as your highness has six other young ladies who would be delighted to accompany you, I did not make my proposal to La Valliere." Madame did not say a word in reply. "Have I acted properly?" continued Montalais, with a slight fluttering of the heart, seeing the little success that attended the ruse de guerre which she had relied upon with so much confidence that she had not thought it even neces- sary to try and find another. "Does madame approve of what I have done?" she continued. Madame was reflecting that the king could very easily leave St. Germain during the night, and that, as it was only four leagues and a half from Paris to St. Germain, he might very easily be in Paris in an hour's time. "Tell me," she said, "whether La Valliere, when she heard of your accident, offered at least to bear you com- pany?" "Oh! she does not yet know of my accident; but even did she know of it, I should not most certainly ask her to do anything which might interfere with her own plans. I think she wishes this evening to realize quietly by herself that amusement of the late king, when he said to Monsieur de Cinq-Mars, 'Let us amuse ourselves by doing nothing and making ourselves miserable.' " Madame felt convinced that some mysterious love adven- ture was hidden beneath this strong desire for solitude. This mystery might possibly be Louis' return during the