so deeply engaged in, which diverts him from so great a design; the
Viscount, who sees deeper into him than anybody, told Madam de Martigny
that he was so changed he did not know him again; and what astonishes
him more is, that he does not find he has any private interviews, or
that he is ever missing at particular times, so that he believes he has
no correspondence with the person he is in love with; and that which
surprises him in the Duke is to see him in love with a woman who does
not return his love."

What poison did this discourse of the Queen-Dauphin carry in it for
Madam de Cleves? How could she but know herself to be the person whose
name was not known, and how could she help being filled with tenderness
and gratitude, when she learned, by a way not in the least liable to
suspicion, that the Duke, who had already touched her heart, concealed
his passion from the whole world, and neglected for her sake the hopes
of a Crown? It is impossible to express what she felt, or to describe
the tumult that was raised in her soul. Had the Queen-Dauphin observed
her closely, she might easily have discerned, that what she had been
saying was not indifferent to her; but as she had not the least
suspicion of the truth, she continued her discourse without minding
her: "Monsieur d'Anville," added she, "from whom, as I just told you,
I had all this, believes I know more of it than himself, and he has so
great an opinion of my beauty, that he is satisfied I am the only
person capable of creating so great a change in the Duke of Nemours."

These last words of the Queen-Dauphin gave Madam de Cleves a sort of
uneasiness very different from that which she had a few minutes before.
"I can easily come into Monsieur d'Anville's opinion," answered she;
"and 'tis very probable, Madam, that nothing less than a Princess of
your merit could make him despise the Queen of England." "I would own
it to you, if I knew it," replied the Queen-Dauphin, "and I should know
it, if it were true; such passions as these never escape the sight of
those who occasion them; they are the first to discern them; the Duke
of Nemours has never showed me anything but slight complaisances; and
yet I find so great a difference betwixt his present and former
behaviour to me, that I can assure you, I am not the cause of the
indifference he expresses for the Crown of England.

"But I forget myself in your company," added the Queen-Dauphin, "and
don't remember tha