Chapter 47

Chapter XLVII:
The Orderly Clerk.

The king, anxious to be again quite alone, in order to reflect well upon
what was passing in his heart, had withdrawn to his own apartments, where
M. de Saint-Aignan had, after his conversation with Madame, gone to meet
him. This conversation has already been related. The favorite, vain of
his twofold importance, and feeling that he had become, during the last
two hours, the confidant of the king, began to treat the affairs of the
court in a somewhat indifferent manner: and, from the position in which
he had placed himself, or rather, where chance had placed him, he saw
nothing but love and garlands of flowers around him. The king's love for
Madame, that of Madame for the king, that of Guiche for Madame, that of
La Valliere for the king, that of Malicorne for Montalais, that of
Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente for himself, was not all this, truly,
more than enough to turn the head of any courtier? Besides, Saint-Aignan
was the model of courtiers, past, present, and to come; and, moreover,
showed himself such an excellent narrator, and so discerningly
appreciative that the king listened to him with an appearance of great
interest, particularly when he described the excited manner with which
Madame had sought for him to converse about the affair of Mademoiselle de
la Valliere. While the king no longer experienced for Madame any remains
of the passion he had once felt for her, there was, in this same
eagerness of Madame to procure information about him, great gratification
for his vanity, from which he could not free himself. He experienced
this pleasure then, but nothing more, and his heart was not, for a single
moment, alarmed at what Madame might, or might not, think of his
adventure. When, however, Saint-Aignan had finished, the king, while
preparing to retire to rest, asked, "Now, Saint-Aignan, you know what
Mademoiselle de la Valliere is, do you not?"

"Not only what she is, but what she will be."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that she is everything that woman can wish to be - that is to
say, beloved by your majesty; I mean, that she will be everything your
majesty may wish her to be."

"That is not what I am asking. I do not wish to know what she is to-day,
or what she will be to-morrow; as you have remarked, that is my affair.
But tell me what others say of her."

"They say she is well conducted."

"Oh!" said the king, smiling, "that is mere report."

"But rare enough, at court, sire, to believe when it is spread."

"Perhaps you are right. Is she well born?"

"Excellently; the daughter of the Marquis de la Valliere, and step-
daughter of that good M. de Saint-Remy."

"Ah, yes! my aunt's major-domo; I remember;