'
'You are strong. You have conquered,' she said, and clasped my hand.
'But then you loved him.'
I suppose I smiled a little with my conscious bliss, for this strange
young princess hastily asked: 'Did you love him? I mean, before you
were married.'
'Oh no,' I said, glad to disavow what was so shocking in my new
country.
'But he is lovable? Ah! that is it. While you are praying to
Heaven, and devoting yourself to a husband whom you love, remember
that if I ruin my soul, it is because they would have it so!'
At that moment there was a pause. A gentleman, the Marquis de
Feuquieres, had come in, bringing with him a very young lad, in the
plian black gown and white collar of a theological student; and it
was made known that the Marquis had been boasting of the wonderful
facility of a youth was studying at the College of Navarre, and had
declared that he could extemporise with eloquence upon any subject.
Some one had begged that the youth might be fetched and set to preach
on a text proposed to him at the moment, and here he was.
Madame de Rambouillet hesitated a little at the irreverence, but the
Duke of Enghien requested that the sermon might take place, and she
consented, only looking at her watch and saying it was near midnight,
so that the time was short. M. Voiture, the poet, carried round a
velvet bag, and each was to write a text on a slip of paper to be
drawn out at haphazard.
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