Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/308

296 "Well, sire," said the second figure, advancing timidly, "has your majesty put our young sentimentalists to flight?""

"It seems so," said the king, "and you can show yourself without fear."

"Take care, sire; you will be recognized."

"But I tell you they have gone."

"This is a most fortunate meeting, sire; and, if I dared offer an opinion to your majesty, we ought to follow them."

"They are far away by this time."

"They would easily allow themselves to be overtaken, especially if they knew who were following them."

"What do you mean by that, coxcomb that you are?"

"Why, one of them seems to have taken a fancy to me, and another compared you to the sun."

"The greater reason why we should not show ourselves, St. Aignan. The sun does not show himself in the nighttime."

"Upon my word, sire, your majesty seems to have very little curiosity. In your place, I should like to know who are the two nymphs, the two dryads, the two hamadryads, who have so good an opinion of us."

"I shall know them again very well, I assure you, without running after them."

"By what means?"

"By their voices, of course. They belong to the court, and the one who spoke of me had a very sweet voice."

"Ah! your majesty permits yourself to be influenced by flattery."

"No one will ever say it is a means you make use of."

"Forgive my stupidity, sire."

"Come; let us go and look where I told you."

"Is the passion, then, which your majesty confided to me, already forgotten?"

"Oh! no, indeed. How is it possible to forget such beautiful eyes as Mademoiselle de la Valliere has?"

"Yet the other had so sweet a voice."

"Which one?"

"She who has fallen in love with the sun."

"Monsieur de St. Aignan!"

"Forgive me, sire.'

"Well, I am not sorry you should believe me to be an admirer of sweet voices as well as of beautiful eyes. I know you to be a terrible talker, and to-morrow I shall have to pay for the confidence I have shown you."

"What do you mean, sire?"