u will be punished!" replied the other girl, sitting
down quietly in hers.

"Punished, indeed!--that is to say, deprived of a ride! That is just
the way in which I wish to be punished. To go out in the grand coach,
perched upon a doorstep; to turn to the left, twist round to the right,
over roads full of ruts, where we cannot exceed a league in two hours;
and then to come back straight towards the wing of the castle in which
is the window of Mary de Medici, so that Madame never fails to say:
'Could one believe it possible that Mary de Medici should have escaped
from that window--forty-seven feet high? The mother of two princes and
three princesses!' If you call that relaxation, Louise, all I ask is to
be punished every day; particularly when my punishment is to remain with
you and write such interesting letters as we write!"

"Montalais! Montalais! there are duties to be performed."

"You talk of them very much at your ease, dear child!--you, who are left
quite free amidst this tedious court. You are the only person that reaps
the advantages of them without incurring the trouble,--you, who are
really more one of Madame's maids of honor than I am, because Madame
makes her affection for your father-in-law glance off upon you; so that
you enter this dull house as the birds fly into yonder court, inhaling
the air, pecking the flowers, picking up the grain, without having the
least service to perform, or the least annoyance to undergo. And you
talk to me of duties to be performed! In sooth, my pretty idler, what
are your own proper duties, unless to write to the handsome Raoul? And
even that you don't do; so that it looks to me as if you likewise were
rather negligent of your duties!"

Louise assumed a serious air, leant her chin upon her hand, and, in a
tone full of candid remonstrance, "And do you reproach me with my good
fortune?" said she. "Can you have the heart to do it? You have a future;
you will belong to the court; the king, if he should marry, will require
Monsieur to be near his person; you will see splendid _fetes_, you will
see the king, who they say is so handsome, so agreeable!"

"Ay, and still more, I shall see Raoul, who attends upon M. le Prince,"
added Montalais, maliciously.

"Poor Raoul!" sighed Louise.

"Now is the time to write to him, my pretty dear! Come, begin again,
with that famous 'Monsieur Raoul' which figures at the top of the poor
torn sheet."

She then held the pen toward her, and w