aled.

The prince, with a passionate gesture, pressed his companion's arm
against his heart.

"I feel better," he said, "and yet I hardly know what heavy weight seems
to press down on my brain; I love too deeply, madame, I perceive."

Diana plucked several sprigs of jasmine and of clematis, and two
beautiful roses which bordered the whole of one side of the pedestal of
the statue behind which Henri was shrinking terrified.

"What are you doing, madame?" inquired the prince.

"I have always understood, monseigneur," she said, "that the perfume of
flowers was the best remedy for attacks of giddiness; I am gathering a
bouquet with the hope that this bouquet, if presented by me, will have
the magical influence which I wish it to possess."

But, while she was arranging the flowers, she let a rose fall from her
hand, which the prince eagerly hastened to pick up.

The movement that Francois made was rapid, but not so rapid, however,
but that it gave Diana sufficient time to pour upon the other rose a few
drops of a liquid contained in a small gold bottle which she drew from
her bosom.

She then took from his hand the rose which the prince had picked up, and
placing it in her girdle, said--

"That one is for me, let us change."

And in exchange for the rose which she received from the prince's hand,
she held out the bouquet to him.

The prince seized it eagerly, inhaled its perfume with delight, and
passed his arm around Diana's waist. But this latter action, in all
probability, completely overwhelmed the already troubled senses of the
prince, for his knees trembled under him, and he was obliged to seat
himself on a bank of green turf, beside which he happened to be
standing.

Henri did not lose sight of these two persons, and yet he had a look for
Remy also, who in the pavilion awaited the termination of this scene, or
rather seemed to devour every minute incident of it.

When he saw the prince totter, he advanced toward the threshold of the
pavilion. Diana, on her side, perceiving Francois stagger, sat herself
down beside him on the bank.

The giddiness from which Francois suffered continued on this occasion
longer than on the former; the prince's head was resting on his chest.
He seemed to have lost all connection in his ideas, and almost the
perception of his own existence; and yet the convulsive movement of his
fingers on Diana's hand seemed to indicate that he was instinctively
pursuing his wild dream of