rather than allow you to suspect for a moment that I could desire
any heart but yours; but if you will be patient enough to hear me
I am sure I can fully justify my behaviour." The Princess made
no reply, but she did not go away and the Duc, seeing that she
was prepared to listen to him, told her that although he had made
no effort to attract the attention of Madame, she had
nevertheless honoured him with her interest: as he was not
enamoured of her he had responded very coolly to this honour
until she gave him to believe that she might marry him. The
realisation of the grandeur to which such a marriage would raise
him had obliged him to take a little more trouble. This situation
had aroused the suspicions of the King and the Duc d'Anjou, but
the opposition of neither of then would have any effect on his
course of action, however if this displeased her he would abandon
all such notions and never think of them again.

This sacrifice which the Duc was prepared to make caused the
Princess to forget all the anger she had shown. She changed the
subject and began to speak of the indiscretion displayed by
Madame in making the first advances and of the considerable
advantages which he would gain if he married her. In the end,
without saying anything kind to the Duc de Guise, she made him
recall a thousand things he had found so pleasing in Mlle. de
Mezieres. Although they had not had private conversation for a
long time, they found themselves attuned to one another, and
their thoughts went along a track which they both had travelled
in the past. At the end of this agreeable meeting the Duc was
left in a state of considerable happiness, and the Princess was
not a little moved to think that he truly loved her. However, in
the privacy of her room she became ashamed of the ease with which