"
"How is she to be introduced to the king?"
"I am to entertain four of my friends."
"Who are they?"
"'First, the baron de Gonesse."
"Who is he?"
"The king himself."
"Well, who next?"
"The duc de Richelieu."
"Who else?"
"The marquis de Chauvelin."
"Well?"
"The duc de la Vauguyon."
"What, the devotee?"
"The hypocrite. But never mind: the main point is, that you must
not appear to recognize the king. Instruct your sister-in-law to
this effect."
"Certainly; if she must sin, she had better do so with some reason."
While these gentlemen were thus disposing of me, what was I
doing? Alone, in my room, I waited the result of their conference
with mortal impatience. The character I had to play was a superb
one, and at the moment was about to enter on the stage, I felt all
the difficulties of my part. I feared I should not succeed, but fail
amid the insulting hisses of the Versailles party.
My fears at once disappeared, and then I pictured myself sitting
on a throne, magnificently attired; my imagination wandered in
all the enchantments of greatness; --then, as if from remorse, I
recalled my past life. The former lover of Nicholas blushed
before the future mistress of Louis XV. A thousand different
reflections crowded upon me, and mingled in my brain. If to live
is to think, I lived a whole age in one quarter of an hour. At
length I heard some doors open, a carriage rolled away, and comte
Jean entered my chamber.
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