CHAPTER XIX.
HOW DE WARDES WAS RECEIVED AT COURT.
Monsieur had received De Wardes with that marked favor which all light and frivolous minds bestow on every novelty that may come in their way.
De Wardes, who had been absent for a month, was like fresh fruit to him.
To treat him with marked kindness was an infidelity to his old friends, and there is always something fascinating in that; moreover, it was a sort of reparation to De Wardes himself.

Nothing, consequently, could exceed the favorable notice Monsieur took of him.

The Chevalier de Lorraine, who feared this rival not a little, but who respected a character and disposition which were precisely parallel to his own in every particular, with the addition of a courage he did not himself possess, received De Wardes with a greater display of regard and affection than even Monsieur had done.

De Guiche, as we have said, was there also, but kept a little in the background, waiting very patiently until all these embraces were over.

De Wardes, while talking to the others, and even to Monsieur himself, had not for a moment lost sight of De Guiche, who, he instinctively felt, was there on his account.