Page:ThePrincessofCleves.djvu/44

32 business. It is not, added she, that he is not suspected to have a very uncommon passion for the queen-dauphin; I observe he visits her very often; and I advise you to avoid, as much as possible, speaking to him, and especially in private; because, since the queen-dauphin treats you as she does, it would be said, that you are their confidante; and you know how disagreeable that sort of reputation is: I'm of opinion, if this report continues, that you should not visit the queen-dauphin so often, in order to avoid involving yourself in adventures of gallantry.

The princess of Cleves had never heard before of the amour between the duke de Nemours and the queen-dauphin; she was so much surprised at what her mother had told her, and seemed to see so plainly how she had been mistaken in her thoughts about the duke, that she changed countenance. Madam de Chartres perceived it. Visitors came in that moment; and the princess of Cleves retired to her own apartment, and shut herself up in her closet.

One can't express the grief she felt to discover, by what her mother had been just saying, the interest her heart had in the duke de Nemours; she had not dared as yet to acknowledge it to her secret thoughts; she then found, that the sentiments she had for him were such as the prince of Cleves had required of her; she perceived how shameful it was to entertain them for another, and not for a husband that deserved them; she found herself under the utmost embarrassment, and was dreadfully afraid lest the Duke should make use of her only as a means to come at the queen-dauphin, and it was this thought determined her to impart to her mother something she had not yet told her.

The next morning she went into her mother's chamber to put her resolves in execution, but she found madam de Chartres had some touches of a fever, and therefore did not think proper to speak to her: this indisposition however appeared to insignificant, that madam de