hastened to open the gate, and a lady, advanced in years, gross in
form, with an irritable face well pitted with pock-marks, and
wearing no other expression than supercilious pride and a haughty
indifference, dismounted with some difficulty, leaning upon the
shoulder of her page, and toiled up the steps which conducted to the
great vestibule.

The runner sprang before her up the great staircase covered with its
carpets, and with his long staff rapped on the door of the first
antechamber that led to the apartments of the queen. "Madame
Adelaide!" shouted he with a loud voice, and the lackey repeated it
in the same tone, quickly opening the door of the second
antechamber; and the word was taken up by the chamberlains, and
repeated and carried along where the queen was sitting.

Marie Antoinette shrugged herself together a little at this
announcement, which interrupted her while engaged in charming
unrestrained conversation with the Duchess de Polignac, and a shadow
flitted across her lofty brow.

With fiery quickness she flung her arms around the neck of her
friend, and pressed a kiss upon her lips. "Farewell, Julia; Madame
Adelaide is coming: that is just the same as irritation and
annoyance. She may not bear the least suspicion of this upon her
fine and dearly-loved face, and just because they are not there, I
must tell you, my dear friend, to leave me. But hold yourself in
readiness, after Madame Annoyance has left me, to ride with me to
Trianon. The queen must remain here half an hour still, but she will
be rewarded for it, for Marie Antoinette will afterward go with her
Julia to Trianon to spend a half day of pleasure with her husband