Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/164

152 and no longer a man. Light hearts are thus constituted, while they themselves continue untouched, they roughly break off with every one who may possibly interfere with their little calculation of selfish comforts. Madame had received Buckingham's smiles and attentions and sighs, while he was present; but what was the good of sighing, smiling, and kneeling at a distance? Can one tell in what direction the winds in the Channel, which toss the mighty vessels to and fro, carry such sighs as these? The duke could not conceal this change, and his heart was cruelly hurt at it. Of a sensitive character, proud and susceptible of deep attachment, he cursed the day on which the passion had entered his heart. The looks which he cast, from time to time at madame, became colder by degrees at the chilling complexion of his thoughts. He could hardly yet despair, but he was strong enough to impose silence upon the tumultuous outcries of his heart. In exact proportion, however, as madame suspected this change of feeling, she redoubled her activity to regain the ray of light which she was about to lose; her timid and indecisive mind was first displayed in brilliant flashes of wit and humor. At any cost, she felt that she must be remarked above everything and every one, even above the king himself. And she was so, for the queens, notwithstanding their dignity, and the king, despite the respect which etiquette required, were all eclipsed by her. The queens, stately and ceremonious, were softened, and could not restrain their laughter. Mme. Henrietta, the queen-mother, was dazzled by the brilliancy which cast distinction upon her family, thanks to the wit of the granddaughter of Henry IV. The king, so jealous, as a young man and as a monarch, of the superiority of those who surrounded him, could not resist admitting himself vanquished by that petulance so thoroughly French in its nature, and whose energy was more than ever increased by its English humor. Like a child, he was captivated by her radiant beauty, which her wit made still more so. Madame's eyes flashed like lightning. Wit and humor escaped from her ruby lips, like persuasion from the lips of Nestor of old. The whole court, subdued by her enchanting grace, noticed for the first time that laughter could be indulged in before the greatest monarch in the world, like people who merited their appellation of the wittiest and most polished people in the world.

Madame, from that evening, achieved and enjoyed a success capable of bewildering whomsoever it might be.