.

LENDEMAIN.
The great levee was over.

Sitting beside the king on the throne, Catharine had received the congratulations of her court; and the king's smiling look, and the tender words which, in undertone, he now and then addressed to the queen, had manifested to the prudent and expert courtiers that the king was to-day just as much enamored of his young consort as he had been yesterday of his bride.

Therefore, every one exerted himself to please the queen, and to catch every look, every smile, which she let fall, like sunbeams, here and there, in order to see for whom they were intended, so that they might, perchance, by this means, divine who were to be the future favorites of the queen, and be the first to become intimate with them.
But the young queen directed her looks to no one in particular.

She was friendly and smiling, yet one felt that this friendliness was constrained, this smile full of sadness.