the most
conspicuous. At the outset the Queen showed a wish to take me into her
confidence but it was the lady-in-waiting who would never consent to
this.

When, at that lottery of the Cardinal's, I won the King's portrait, the
Queen-mother called me into her closet and desired to know how such a
thing could possibly have happened. I replied that, during the
garter-incident, the two tickets had got mixed. "Ah, in that case," said
the princess, "the occurrence was quite a natural one. So keep this
portrait, since it has fallen into your hands; but, for God's sake, don't
try and make yourself pleasant to my son; for you're only too fascinating
as it is. Look at that little La Valliere, what a mess she has got into,
and what chagrin she has caused my poor Maria Theresa!"

I replied to her Majesty that I would rather let myself be buried alive
than ever imitate La Valliere, and I said so then because that was really
what I thought.

The Queen-mother softened, and gave me her hand to kiss, now addressing
me as "madame," and anon as "my daughter." A few days afterwards she
wished to walk in the gallery with me, and said to me, "If God suffers me
to live, I will make you lady-in-waiting; be sure of that."

Anne of Austria was a tall, fine, dark woman, with brown eyes, like those
of the King. The Infanta, her niece, is a very pretty blonde, blue-eyed,
but short in stature.

To her slightest words the Queen-mother gives sense and wit; her
daughter-in-law's speeches and actions are of the simplest, most
commonplace kind. Were it not for the King, she would pass her life in a
dressing-gown, night-cap, and slippers. At Court ceremonies and on
gala-days, she never appears to be in a good humour; everything seems to
weigh her down, notably her diamonds.

However, she has no remarkable defect, and one may say that she is devoid
of goodness, just as she is devoid of badness. When coming among us, she
contrived to bring with her Molina, the daughter of her nurse, a sort of
comedy confidante, who soon gave herself Court airs, and who managed to
form a regular little Court of her own. Without her sanction nothing can
be obtained of the Queen. My lady Molina is the great, the small, and
the unique counsellor of the princess, and the King, like the others,
remains submissive to her decisions and her inspection.

French cookery, by common consent, is held to be well-nigh perfect in its
excellence; yet the Infanta could never get use