eighty years of age is a compliment to a woman's beauty misplaced!
There was a slight pause. I thought that respect forbade me to break
it.

"His Majesty," said the Bishop, in the tone of one who is sensible that
he encroaches a little, and does it with consequent reverence, "his
Majesty, I hope, is well?"

"God be thanked, yes, as well as we can expect. It is now nearly the
hour in which his Majesty awaits your personal inquiries."

Fleuri bowed as he answered,--

"The King, then, will receive us to-day? My young companion is very
desirous to see the greatest monarch, and, consequently, the greatest
man, of the age."

"The desire is natural," said Madame de Maintenon; and then, turning to
me, she asked if I had yet seen King James the Third.

I took care, in my answer, to express that even if I had resolved to
make that stay in Paris which allowed me to pay my respects to him at
all, I should have deemed that both duty and inclination led me, in the
first instance, to offer my homage to one who was both the benefactor of
my father and the monarch whose realms afforded me protection.

"You have not, then," said Madame de Maintenon, "decided on the length
of your stay in France?"

"No," said I,--and my answer was regulated by my desire to see how far I