And you must understand that when I go to visit my aunts, my husband almost always goes with me.

At seven we play cards till nine o'clock; but when the weather is fine I go out walking, and then there is no play in my apartments, but it is held at my aunts'.

At nine we sup; and when the king is not there, my aunts come to sup with us; but when the king is there, we go after supper to their rooms, waiting there for the king, who usually comes about a quarter to eleven; and I lie down on a grand sofa and go to sleep till he comes.

But when he is not there, we go to bed at eleven o'clock." The play-table which is alluded to in these letters was one of the most curious and mischievous institutions of the court.

Gambling had been one of its established vices ever since the time of Henry IV., whose enormous losses at play had formed the subject of Sully's most incessant remonstrances.