Fortunately the King was not there, and Madame would receive me.
I thought, indeed, that her doors flew open with suspicious
speed, and that way was made for me more easily than usual; and I
soon found that I was not wrong in the inference I drew from
these facts. For when I entered her chamber that remarkable
woman, who, whatever her enemies may say, combined with her
beauty a very uncommon degree of sense and discretion, met me
with a low courtesy and a smile of derision. "So," she said, "M.
de Rosny, not satisfied with furnishing me with evidence, gives
me proof."

"How, Madame?" I said; though I well understood.

"By his presence here," she answered. "An hour ago," she
continued, "the King was with me. I had not then the slightest
ground to expect this honour, or I am sure that his Majesty would
have stayed to share it. But I have since seen reason to expect
it, and you observe that I am not unprepared."

She spoke with a sparkling eye, and an expression of the most
lively resentment; so that, had M. de Perrot been in my place I
think that he would have shed more tears. I was myself somewhat
dashed, though I knew the prudence that governed her in her most
impetuous sallies; still, to avoid the risk of hearing things
which we might both afterwards wish unsaid, I came to the point.
"I fear that I have timed my visit ill, Madame," I said. "You
have some complaint against me."

"Only that you are like the others," she answered with a fine