"What is that noise outside—not unlike the roaring of angry waters?"
"It is the tumult of the innumerable sight-seers walking about under the illumination and waiting for the fireworks
display."
"The illuminations?" said the princess with a sad smile. "They must have been timely this evening, for did you not notice it was very black weather?"
At this moment the dauphin, who was tired of waiting, thrust his head in at the door, and asked if he might enter. Lady Noailles screamed, for she did not recognize the intruder at first. The dauphiness, worked up into a nervous state by the incidents of the day, seized the duchess' arm in her fright.
"It is I, madame; have no fear," called out the prince.
"But why by that way?" said Lady Noailles.
"Because," explained Louis the King, showing his head at the half-open door, "because the Duke of Vauguyon knows so much Latin, mathematics and geography as to leave room for nothing else."
In presence of the king so untimely arrived, the dauphiness slipped off the couch and stood up in the wrapper, clothed from head to foot like a vestal virgin in her stole.