Chapter 33 - Page 2

that accuracy of observation which characterized him, the disorder
of the apartment, and the no less great disorder of Madame's countenance,
he assumed a playful manner, saying, "My dear sister, at what hour to-day
would you wish the repetition of the ballet to take place?"

Madame, shaking her charming head, slowly and languishingly said: "Ah!
sire, will you graciously excuse my appearance at the repetition? I was
about to send to inform you that I could not attend to-day."

"Indeed," said the king, in apparent surprise; "are you not well?"

"No, sire."

"I will summon your medical attendants, then."

"No, for they can do nothing for my indisposition."

"You alarm me."

"Sire, I wish to ask your majesty's permission to return to England."

The king started. "Return to England," he said; "do you really say what
you mean?"

"I say it reluctantly, sire," replied the grand-daughter of Henry IV.,
firmly, her beautiful black eyes flashing. "I regret to have to confide
such matters to your majesty, but I feel myself too unhappy at your
majesty's court; and I wish to return to my own family."

"Madame, madame," exclaimed the king, as he approached her.

"Listen to me, sire," continued the young woman, acquiring by degrees
that ascendency over her interrogator which her beauty and her nervous
nature conferred; "young as I am, I have already suffered humiliation,
and have endured disdain here. Oh! do not contradict me, sire," she
said, with a smile. The king colored.

"Then," she continued, "I had reasoned myself into the belief that Heaven
called me into existence with that object - I, the daughter of a powerful
monarch; that since my father had been deprived of life, Heaven could
well smite my pride. I have suffered greatly; I have been the cause,
too, of my mother suffering much; but I vowed that if Providence ever
placed me in a position of independence, even were it that of a workman
of the lower classes, who gains her bread by her labor, I would never
suffer humiliation again. That day has now arrived; I have been restored
to the fortune due to my rank and to my birth; I have even ascended again
the steps of a throne, and I thought that, in allying myself with a
French prince, I should find in him a relation, a friend, an equal; but I
perceive I have found only a master, and I rebel. My mother shall know
nothing of it; you whom I respect, and whom I - love - "

The king started; never had any voice so gratified his ear.

"You, sire, who know all, since you have come here; you will, perhaps,
understand me. If you had not come, I should have gone to you. I wish
for permission to go away. I leave it to your delicacy of feeling to
exculpate and to