In the first place, the devoted love of a mistress is a rapid element of the dissolution of a lover's affection; and then, by dint of loving, the mistress loses all influence over her lover, whose power of wealth she does not covet, caring only for his affection.

Wish, therefore, that the king should love but lightly, and that his mistress should love with all her heart." "Oh, my mother, what power may not a deep affection exercise over him!" "And yet you say you are resigned ?" "Quite true, quite true; I speak absurdly.

There is a feeling of anguish, however, which I can never control." "And that is ?" "The king may make a happy choice--may find a home, with all the tender influences of home, not far from that we can offer him,--a home with children round him, the children of another woman.

Oh, madame! I should die if I were but to see the king's children." "Marie, Marie," replied the queen-mother with a smile, and she took the young queen's hand in her own, "remember what I am going to say, and let it always be a consolation to you: the king cannot have a Dauphin without _you_." With this remark the queen-mother quitted her daughter-in-law, in order to meet Madame, whose arrival in the grand cabinet had just been announced by one of the pages.

Madame had scarcely taken time to change her dress.