Besides, it is only spirits that can pass through brick walls, or floors and ceilings." "Oh, sire, reflect for a moment how terrible the scandal would be! Nothing equal to it could ever have been previously said about the maids of honor, poor creatures! whom evil report, however, hardly ever spares." "And your conclusion from all this, my dear Louise,--come, explain yourself." "Alas! it is a hard thing to say--but your majesty must suppress staircase plots, surprises and all; for the evil consequences which would result from your being found here would be far greater than our happiness in seeing each other." "Well, Louise," replied the king, tenderly, "instead of removing this staircase by which I have ascended, there is a far more simple means, of which you have not thought." "A means--another means!" "Yes, another.

Oh, you do not love me as I love you, Louise, since my invention is quicker than yours." She looked at the king, who held out his hand to her, which she took and gently pressed between her own.
"You were saying," continued the king, "that I shall be detected coming here, where any one who pleases can enter." "Stay, sire; at this very moment, even while you are speaking about it, I tremble with dread of your being discovered." "But you would not be found out, Louise, if you were to descend the staircase which leads to the room underneath." "Oh, sire! what do you say ?" cried Louise, in alarm.
"You do not quite understand me, Louise, since you get offended at my very first word; first of all, do you know to whom the apartments underneath belong ?" "To M.de Guiche, sire, I believe." "Not at all; they are M.de Saint-Aignan's." "Are you sure ?" cried La Valliere; and this exclamation which escaped from the young girl's joyous heart made the king's heart throb with delight.
"Yes, to Saint-Aignan, _our friend_," he said.
"But, sire," returned La Valliere, "I cannot visit M.de Saint-Aignan's rooms any more than I could M.de Guiche's.

It is impossible--impossible." "And yet, Louise, I should have thought that, under the safe-conduct of the king, you would venture anything." "Under the safe-conduct of the king," she said, with a look full of tenderness.
"You have faith in my word, I hope, Louise ?" "Yes, sire, when you are not present; but when you are present,--when you speak to me,--when I look upon you, I have faith in nothing." "What can possibly be done to reassure you ?" "It is scarcely respectful, I know, to doubt the king, but--for me--you are _not_ the king." "Thank Heaven!--I, at least, hope so most devoutly; you see how anxiously I am trying to find or invent a means of removing all difficulty.

Stay; would the presence of a third person reassure you ?" "The presence of M.de Saint-Aignan would, certainly." "Really, Louise, you wound me by your suspicions." Louise did not answer, she merely looked steadfastly at him with that clear, piercing gaze which penetrates the very heart, and said softly to herself, "Alas! alas! it is not you of whom I am afraid,--it is not you upon whom my doubts would fall." "Well," said the king, sighing, "I agree; and M.de Saint-Aignan, who enjoys the inestimable privilege of reassuring you, shall always be present at our interviews, I promise you." "You promise that, sire ?" "Upon my honor as a gentleman; and you, on your side--" "Oh, wait, sire, that is not all yet; for such conversations ought, at least, to have a reasonable motive of some kind for M.de Saint-Aignan." "Dear Louise, every shade of delicacy of feeling is yours, and my only study is to equal you on that point.

It shall be just as you wish: therefore our conversations shall have a reasonable motive, and I have already hit upon one; so that from to-morrow, if you like--" "To-morrow ?" "Do you meant that that is not soon enough ?" exclaimed the king, caressing La Valliere's hand between his own.
At this moment the sound of steps was heard in the corridor.
"Sire! sire!" cried La Valliere, "some one is coming; do you hear?
Oh, fly! fly! I implore you." The king made but one bound from the chair where he was sitting to his hiding-place behind the screen.