"It is the Duke of Buckingham," said Marguerite, bursting into laughter.This perfidy had been calculated with extreme ability; the name that was pronounced, instead of the name which the marquise awaited, had precisely the same effect upon her as the badly sharpened axes that had hacked, without destroying, Messieurs de Chalais and De Thou upon the scaffold.She recovered herself, however, and said, "Iwas perfectly right in saying you were a witty woman, for you are making the time pass away most agreeably.This joke is a most amusing one, for I have never seen the Duke of Buckingham.""Never?" said Marguerite, restraining her laughter.
"I have never even left my own house since the duke has been at Paris.""Oh!" resumed Madame Vanel, stretching out her foot towards a paper which was lying on the carpet near the window; "it is not necessary for people to see each other, since they can write." The marquise trembled, for this paper was the envelope of the letter she was reading as her friend had entered, and was sealed with the superintendent's arms.As she leaned back on the sofa on which she was sitting, Madame de Belliere covered the paper with the thick folds of her large silk dress, and so concealed it.
"Come, Marguerite, tell me, is it to tell me all these foolish reports that you have come to see me so early in the day?""No, I came to see you, in the first place, and to remind you of those habits of our earlier days, so delightful to remember, when we used to wander about together at Vincennes, and, sitting beneath an oak, or in some sylvan shade, used to talk of those we loved, and who loved us.""Do you propose that we should go out together now?""My carriage is here, and I have three hours at my disposal.""I am not dressed yet, Marguerite; but if you wish that we should talk together, we can, without going to the woods of Vincennes, find in my own garden here, beautiful trees, shady groves, a greensward covered with daisies and violets, the perfume of which can be perceived from where we are sitting.""I regret your refusal, my dear marquise, for I wanted to pour out my whole heart into yours.""I repeat again, Marguerite, my heart is yours just as much in this room, or beneath the lime-trees in the garden here, as it would be under the oaks in the wood yonder.""It is not the same thing for me.In approaching Vincennes, marquise, my ardent aspirations approach nearer to that object towards which they have for some days past been directed." The marquise suddenly raised her head."Are you surprised, then, that I am still thinking of Saint-Mande?""Of Saint-Mande?" exclaimed Madame de Belliere; and the looks of both women met each other like two resistless swords.
"You, so proud!" said the marquise, disdainfully.
"I, so proud!" replied Madame Vanel."Such is my nature.Ido not forgive neglect -- I cannot endure infidelity.When Ileave any one who weeps at my abandonment, I feel induced still to love him; but when others forsake me and laugh at their infidelity, I love distractedly."Madame de Belliere could not restrain an involuntary movement.
"She is jealous," said Marguerite to herself.
"Then," continued the marquise, "you are quite enamored of the Duke of Buckingham -- I mean of M.Fouquet?" Elise felt the allusion, and her blood seemed to congeal in her heart.
"And you wished to go to Vincennes, -- to Saint-Mande, even?""I hardly know what I wished: you would have advised me perhaps.""In what respect?"
"You have often done so."
"Most certainly I should not have done so in the present instance, for I do not forgive as you do.I am less loving, perhaps; when my heart has been once wounded, it remains so always.""But M.Fouquet has not wounded you," said Marguerite Vanel, with the most perfect simplicity.
"You perfectly understand what I mean.M.Fouquet has not wounded me; I do not know of either obligation or injury received at his hands, but you have reason to complain of him.You are my friend, and I am afraid I should not advise you as you would like.""Ah! you are prejudging the case."
"The sighs you spoke of just now are more than indications.""You overwhelm me," said the young woman suddenly, as if collecting her whole strength, like a wrestler preparing for a last struggle; "you take only my evil dispositions and my weaknesses into calculation, and do not speak of my pure and generous feelings.If, at this moment, I feel instinctively attracted towards the superintendent, if I even make an advance to him, which, I confess, is very probable, my motive for it is, that M.Fouquet's fate deeply affects me, and because he is, in my opinion, one of the most unfortunate men living.""Ah!" said the marquise, placing her hand upon her heart, "something new, then, has occurred?""Do you not know it?"
"I am utterly ignorant of everything about him," said Madame de Belliere, with the poignant anguish that suspends thought and speech, and even life itself.
"In the first place, then, the king's favor is entirely withdrawn from M.Fouquet, and conferred on M.Colbert.""So it is stated."
