ou conclude either that he loves me, or that I love him?"

"Why not?--he is a most agreeable and charming companion.--No one hears
me, I hope," said Lucy Stewart, as she turned round with a smile, which
indicated, moreover, that her uneasiness on the subject was not extreme.

"No, no," said Mary, "the king is engaged in his summer-house with the
Duke of Buckingham."

"Oh! _a propos_ of the duke, Mary, it seems he has shown you great
attention since his return from France; how is your own heart in that
direction?"

Mary Grafton shrugged her shoulders with seeming indifference.

"Well, well, I will ask Bragelonne about it," said Stewart, laughing;
"let us go and find him at once."

"What for?"

"I wish to speak to him."

"Not yet, one word before you do: come, come, you who know so many of
the king's secrets, tell me why M. de Bragelonne is in England?"

"Because he was sent as an envoy from one sovereign to another."

"That may be; but, seriously, although politics do not much concern us,
we know enough to be satisfied that M. de Bragelonne has no mission of
serious import here."

"Well, then, listen," said Stewart, with assumed gravity, "for your sake
I am going to betray a state secret. Shall I tell you the nature of the
letter which King Louis XIV. gave M. de Bragelonne for King Charles II.?
I will; these are the very words: 'My brother, the bearer of this is a
gentleman attached to my court, and the son of one whom you regard most
warmly. Treat him kindly, I beg, and try and make him like England.'"

"Did it say that!"

"Word for word--or something very like it. I will not answer for the
form, but the substance I am sure of."

"Well, and what conclusion do you, or rather what conclusion does the
king, draw from that?"

"That the king of France has his own reasons for removing M. de
Bragelonne, and for getting him married anywhere else than in France."

"So that, then, in consequence of this letter--"

"King Charles received M. de Bragelonne, as you are aware, in the
most distinguished and friendly manner; the handsomest apartments in
Whitehall were allotted to him; and as you are the most valuable
and precious person in his court, inasmuch as you have rejected his
heart,--nay, do not blush,--he wished you to take a fancy to this
Frenchman, and he was desirous to confer upon him so costly a prize.
And this is the reason why you, the heiress of three hundred thousand
pounds, a future duchess, so be