"No, certainly not."

"But as the king, it is said, cannot do without Mademoiselle
Mary?"

"Mademoiselle, the king must do without her. M. le Cardinal
will have it so. He has exiled his nieces to Brouage."

"He! -- the hypocrite!"

"Hush!" said Louise, pressing a finger on her friend's rosy
lips.

"Bah! nobody can hear me. I say that old Mazarino Mazarini
is a hypocrite, who burns impatiently to make his niece
Queen of France."

"That cannot be, mademoiselle, since M. le Cardinal, on the
contrary, has brought about the marriage of his majesty with
the Infanta Maria Theresa."

Montalais looked Raoul full in the face, and said, "And do
you Parisians believe in these tales? Well! we are a little
more knowing than you, at Blois."

"Mademoiselle, if the king goes beyond Poitiers and sets out
for Spain, if the articles of the marriage contract are
agreed upon by Don Luis de Haro and his eminence, you must
plainly perceive that it is not child's play."