You are wet already, and perhaps are cold, too ?" "No, sire." "And yet you tremble ?" "I am afraid, sire, that my absence may be misinterpreted; at a moment, too, when all the others are reunited." "I would not hesitate to propose returning to the carriages, Mademoiselle de la Valliere, but pray look and listen, and tell me if it be possible to attempt to make the slightest progress at the present ?" In fact the thunder was still rolling, and the rain continued to fall in torrents.
"Besides," continued the king, "no possible interpretation can be made which would be to your discredit.

Are you not with the king of France; in other words, with the first gentleman of the kingdom ?" "Certainly, sire," replied La Valliere, "and it is a very distinguished honor for me; it is not, therefore, for myself that I fear the interpretations that may be made." "For whom, then ?" "For yourself, sire." "For me ?" said the king, smiling; "I do not understand you." "Has your majesty already forgotten what took place yesterday evening in her highness's apartments ?" "Oh! forget that, I beg, or allow me to remember it for no other purpose than to thank you once more for your letter, and--" "Sire," interrupted La Valliere, "the rain is falling, and your majesty's head is uncovered." "I entreat you not to think of anything but yourself." "Oh! I," said La Valliere, smiling, "I am a country girl, accustomed to roaming through the meadows of the Loire and the gardens of Blois, whatever the weather may be.

And, as for my clothes," she added, looking at her simple muslin dress, "your majesty sees they do not run much risk." "Indeed, I have already noticed, more than once, that you owed nearly everything to yourself and nothing to your toilet.

Your freedom from coquetry is one of your greatest charms in my eyes." "Sire, do not make me out better than I am, and say merely, 'You cannot be a coquette.'" "Why so ?" "Because," said La Valliere, smiling, "I am not rich." "You admit, then," said the king, quickly, "that you have a love for beautiful things ?" "Sire, I only regard those things as beautiful which are within my reach.

Everything which is too highly placed for me--" "You are indifferent to ?" "Is foreign to me, as being prohibited." "And I," said the king, "do not find that you are at my court on the footing you should be.