ve to admiration, jealous and exacting of her suitors, never
willingly letting one loose from her bonds, and with warm passions and
a cold heart was eager for the semblance of love, although never feeling
its divine reality.

The idea of a union with Le Gardeur some day, when she should tire of
the whirl of fashion, had been a pleasant fancy of Angelique. She had
no fear of losing her power over him: she held him by the very
heart-strings, and she knew it. She might procrastinate, play false and
loose, drive him to the very verge of madness by her coquetries, but she
knew she could draw him back, like a bird held by a silken string. She
could excite, if she could not feel, the fire of a passionate love. In
her heart she regarded men as beings created for her service, amazement,
and sport,--to worship her beauty and adorn it with gifts. She took
everything as her due, giving nothing in return. Her love was an empty
shell that never held a kernel of real womanly care for any man.

Amid the sunshine of her fancied love for Le Gardeur had come a day
of eclipse for him, of fresh glory for her. The arrival of the new
Intendant, Bigot, changed the current of Angelique's ambition. His
high rank, his fabulous wealth, his connections with the court, and
his unmarried state, fanned into a flame the secret aspirations of the
proud, ambitious girl. His wit and gallantry captivated her fancy, and
her vanity was full fed by being singled out as the special object of
the Intendant's admiration.

She already indulged in dreams which regarded the Intendant himself as
but a stepping-stone to further greatness. Her vivid fancy, conjured
up scenes of royal splendor, where, introduced by the courtly Bigot,
princes and nobles would follow in her train and the smiles of majesty
itself would distinguish her in the royal halls of Versailles.

Angelique felt she had power to accomplish all this could she but
open the way. The name of Bigot she regarded as the open sesame to all
greatness. "If women rule France by a right more divine than that of
kings, no woman has a better right than I!" said she, gazing into the
mirror before her. "The kingdom should be mine, and death to all other
pretenders! And what is needed after all?" thought she, as she brushed
her golden hair from her temples with a hand firm as it was beautiful.
"It is but to pull down the heart of a man! I have done that many a time
for my pleasure; I will now do it for my profit,