Anne of Austria, after her daughter-in-law had left her, said to herself, as she examined the bracelets, "They are, indeed, precious; since, by their means, this evening, I shall have won over a heart to my side, and, at the same time, shall have guessed a secret." Then, turning toward the deserted recess in her room, she said, addressing vacancy--"Is it not thus that you would have acted, my poor Chevreuse?
Yes, yes; I know it is." And, like a perfume of days gone by, her youth, her imagination, and her happiness, seemed to return to her with the echo of this invocation..