this, and for a few moments was dazzled
and overpowered by the thought of the golden doors of her ambition
opened by the hand of the Intendant. A train of images, full-winged
and as gorgeous as birds of paradise, flashed across her vision. La
Pompadour was getting old, men said, and the King was already casting
his eyes round the circle of more youthful beauties in his Court for a
successor. "And what woman in the world," thought she, "could vie with
Angelique des Meloises if she chose to enter the arena to supplant La
Pompadour? Nay, more! If the prize of the King were her lot, she would
outdo La Maintenon herself, and end by sitting on the throne."

Angelique was not, however, a milkmaid to say yes before she was asked.
She knew her value, and had a natural distrust of the Intendant's
gallant speeches. Moreover, the shadow of the lady of Beaumanoir would
not wholly disappear. "Why do you say such flattering things to me,
Chevalier?" asked she. "One takes them for earnest coming from the Royal
Intendant. You should leave trifling to the idle young men of the city,
who have no business to employ them but gallanting us women."

"Trifling! By St. Jeanne de Choisy, I was never more in earnest,
Mademoiselle!" exclaimed Bigot. "I offer you the entire devotion of
my heart." St. Jeanne de Choisy was the sobriquet in the petits
appartements for La Pompadour. Angelique knew it very well, although
Bigot thought she did not.

"Fair words are like flowers, Chevalier," replied she, "sweet to smell
and pretty to look at; but love feeds on ripe fruit. Will you prove your
devotion to me if I put it to the test?"

"Most willingly, Angelique!" Bigot thought she contemplated some idle
freak that might try his gallantry, perhaps his purse. But she was in
earnest, if he was not.

"I ask, then, the Chevalier Bigot that before he speaks to me again of
love or devotion, he shall remove that lady, whoever she may be, from
Beaumanoir!" Angelique sat erect, and looked at him with a long, fixed
look, as she said this.

"Remove that lady from Beaumanoir!" exclaimed he in complete surprise;
"surely that poor shadow does not prevent your accepting my devotion,
Angelique?"

"Yes, but it does, Chevalier! I like bold men. Most women do, but I did
not think that even the Intendant of New France was bold enough to
make love to Angelique des Meloises while he kept a wife or mistress in
stately seclusion at Beaumanoir!"

Bigot cursed the shrewish