When his other duties as a host called him away, his lordship
said, with a smile, that he would make acquainted with each other two
of his own countrywomen, both alike disguised under foreign names,
and therewith he presented Madame van Hunker to me. Being on the
same side of the table we had not previously seen one another, nor
indeed would she have known me by sight, since I had left England
before her arrival at Court.
She knew my name instantly, and the crimson colour rushed into those
fair cheeks as she made a very low reverence, and murmured some
faltering civility.
We were left together, for all the other guest near us were
Hollanders, whose language I could not speak, and who despised French
too much to learn it. So, as we paced along, I endeavoured to say
something trivial of the Prince's christening and the like, which
might begin the conversation; and I was too sorry for her to speak
with the frigidity with which my sister thought she ought to be
treated. Then gradually she took courage to reply, and I found that
she had come in attendance on her stepdaughter Cornelia, who was
extremely devoted to these sleighing parties. The other daughter,
Veronica, was at home, indisposed, having, as well as her father,
caught a feverish cold on a late expedition into the country, and
Madame would fain have given up the party, as she thought Cornelia
likewise to be unwell, but her father would not hear of his favourite
Keetje being disappointed.
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