Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/235

Rh that will be a delightful surprise. I am sure we shall be very merry; you were wrong this morning."

"Well, perhaps I was."

"There is no perhaps at all, for it is a fact you were so."

"Chevalier, chevalier, your advice is not good."

"Nay, my advice is good; all the advantages are on your own side. Your violet-colored suit, embroidered with gold, becomes you admirably. Madame will be as much vanquished by the man as by the step. Come, monseigneur."

"You decide me; let us go."

The duke left his room, accompanied by the chevalier, and went toward madame's apartments. The chevalier hastily whispered to his valet, "Be sure that there are some people before the little door, so that no one can escape in that direction. Run, run!" And he followed the duke toward the antechambers of madame's suite of apartments, and when the ushers were about to announce them, the chevalier said, laughing, "His highness wishes to surprise madame."

entered the room abruptly, as those persons do who mean well and think they confer pleasure, or as those who hope to surprise some secret, the melancholy reward of jealous people. Madame, almost out of her senses at the first bars of music, was dancing in the most unrestrained manner, leaving the dinner, which had been already begun, unfinished. Her partner was M. de Guiche, who, with his arms raised, and his eyes half-closed, was kneeling on one knee, like the Spanish dancers, with looks full of passion, and gestures of the most caressing character. The princess was dancing round him with a responsive smile, and the same air of alluring seductiveness. Montalais stood by admiringly; La Valliere, seated in a corner of the room, looked on thoughtfully. It is impossible to describe the effect which the presence of the prince produced upon this happy company, and it would be just as impossible to describe the effect which the sight of their happiness produced upon Philip. The Comte de Guiche had no power to move; madame remained in the middle of one of the figures and of an attitude, unable to utter a word. The