"Good-night, little daughter! Think of Our Lady and the saints, and
then ask them to keep us safe from evil. Good-night!"

"Good-night." responded Babette sleepily,--but all the same she did
not think of Our Lady and the saints half as much as of Diane de
Poitiers. There are few daughters of Eve to whom conquest does not
seem a finer thing than humility; and the sovereignty of Diane de
Poitiers over a king, seems to many a girl just conscious of her own
charm, a more emphatic testimony to the supremacy of her sex, than
the Angel's greeting of "Blessed art thou!" to the elected Virgin of
the world.




III.

Meanwhile a somewhat embarrassing interview had taken place between
the Archbishop of Rouen and Cardinal Bonpre. The archbishop, seen by
the light of the one small lamp which illumined the "best room" of
the Hotel Poitiers was certainly a handsome and imposing personage,
broad-chested and muscular, with a massive head, well set on strong
square shoulders, admirably adapted for the wearing of the dark
violet soutane which fitted them as gracefully as a royal vesture
draping the figure of a king. One disproportionate point, however,
about his attire was, that the heavy gold crucifix which depended by
a chain from his neck, did not, with him, look so much a sacred
symbol as a trivial ornament,--whereas the simple silver one that
gleamed against the rusty black scarlet-edged cassock of Cardinal