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Rh 272 LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. the portions which your children, your poor pensioners, and various other persons will require, will start up as fresh claims, and these letters, however compromising they may be in their nature, are not worth from three to four mil- lions. Can you have forgotten the Queen of France's diamonds? — they were surely worth more than these bits of waste paper signed by Mazarin, and yet their recovery did not cost a quarter of what you ask for yourself." "Yes, that is true; but the merchant values his goods at his own price, and it is for the purchaser to buy or refuse." "Stay a moment, duchess; would you like me to tell you why I will not buy your letters?" "Pray tell me." "Because the letters you say are Mazarin's are false." "What an absurdity!" "I have no doubt of it, for it would, to say the least, be very singular, that after you had quarreled with the queen through Monsieur Mazarin's means, you should have kept up any intimate acquaintance with the latter; it would look as if you had been acting as a spy; and upon my word, I do not like to make use of the word." "Oh! pray, say it." "Your great complacence would seem very suspicious, at all events." "That is quite true; but what is not less so, is that which the letter contains." "I pledge you my word, duchess, that you will not be able to make use of it with the queen." "Oh, yes, indeed, I can make use of everything with the queen." "Very good," thought Aramis. "Croak on, old owl — hiss, viper that you are!" But the duchess had said enough, and advanced a few steps toward the door. Aramis, however, had reserved an exposure which she did not expect — the imprecation of the slave behind the car of the conqueror. He rang the bell, candles immediately appeared in the adjoining room, and the bishop found himself completely encircled by lights, which shone upon the worn, haggard face of the duchess, revealing every feature but too clearly. Aramis fixed a long and ironical look upon her pale, thin, withered cheeks — upon her dim, dull eyes — and upon her lips, which she kept carefully closed over her blackened and scanty teeth. He, however, had thrown himself into a graceful attitude, with his haughty and intelligent head thrown back; he smiled so as