If any one could steer between the Prince and the Cardinal,
and bring some guarantee for the people out of the confusion, it was
the Keeper of the Seals, the head of the only party who cared more
for the good of the country than their private malice and hatred.
'And,' he said diffidently, 'if under M. Mole's patronage, the steps
could be gained without loss of honour or principle, you remember
that there is a noblesse de la robe, which might remove some of
Madame de Ribaumont's objections, though I do not presume to compare
it with the blood of the Crusaders.'
I am ashamed to say that I answered, 'I should think not!' and then I
am afraid I reproached him for bartering the glorious independence
that had once rendered him far more than noble, for the mere tinsel
show of rank that all alike thought despicable. How I hate myself
when I recall that I told him that if he had done so for my sake he
had made a mistake; and as for loyalty rallying round the French
Crown, I believed in no such thing; they were all alike, and cared
for nothing but their ambitions and their hatreds.
Before anything had been said to soften these words--while he was
still standing grave and stiff, like one struck by a blow--in came
the others from the window. Meg, in fact, could not keep Cecile
d'Aubepine back any longer from hindering such shocking impropriety
as out tete-a-tete. We overheard her saving her little girl from
corruption by a frightful French fib that the gentleman in black was
Mademoiselle de Ribaumont's English priest.
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