s accessories to the picture of which the painter could
but retrace the most ephemeral resemblance.

Louis was intoxicated with love, La Valliere with happiness,
Saint-Aignan with ambition, and the painter was storing up recollections
for his old age. Two hours passed away in this manner, and four o'clock
having struck, La Valliere rose, and made a sign to the king. Louis also
rose, approached the picture, and addressed a few flattering remarks
to the painter. Saint-Aignan also praised the picture, which, as he
pretended, was already beginning to assume an accurate resemblance. La
Valliere in her turn, blushingly thanked the painter and passed into the
next room, where the king followed her, after having previously summoned
Saint-Aignan.

"Will you not come to-morrow?" he said to La Valliere.

"Oh! sire, pray think that some one will be sure to come to my room, and
will not find me there."

"Well?"

"What will become of me in that case?"

"You are very apprehensive, Louise."

"But at all events, suppose Madame were to send for me?"

"Oh!" replied the king, "will the day never come when you yourself will
tell me to brave everything so that I may not have to leave you again?"

"On that day, sire, I shall be quite out of my mind, and you must not
believe me."

"To-morrow, Louise."

La Valliere sighed, but, without the courage to oppose her royal lover's
wish, she repeated, "To-morrow, then, since you desire it, sire," and
with these words she ran lightly up the stairs, and disappeared from her
lover's gaze.

"Well, sire?" inquired Saint-Aignan, when she had left.

"Well, Saint-Aignan, yesterday I thought myself the happiest of men."

"And does your majesty, then, regard yourself to-day," said the comte,
smiling, "as the unhappiest of men?"

"No; but my love for her is an unquenchable thirst; in vain do I drink,
in vain do I swallow the drops of water which your industry procures for
me; the more I drink, the more unquenchable it becomes."

"Sire, that is in some degree your own fault, and your majesty alone has
made the position such as it is."

"You are right."

"In that case, therefore, the means to be happy, is to fancy yourself
satisfied, and to wait."

"Wait! you know that word, then?"

"There, there, sire--do not despair: I have already been at work on your
behalf--I have still other resources in store." The king shook his head
in a despairing manner.

"What, sire! have you not been satisf