Philippe felt the blood rush to his face, and Andrée looked at him rather sadly.
The queen observed these looks of the brother and sister, and fancied she divined the cause. “Why,” she thought, “should not Monsieur de Taverney have partaken the epidemic passion which pervaded all France for the dauphiness in 1774?” Marie Antoinette therefore attributed these looks to some confidence of this kind which the brother had made to the sister; and in consequence, she smiled still more upon him, and redoubled her kindness towards Andrée.
The queen was a true woman, and gloried in being loved.
It was an innocent coquetry, and the most generous souls have the most strongly these aspirations for the love of all who surround them.
Alas! a time is coming for thee, poor queen, when those smiles towards those who love thee, with which thou hast been reproached, thou shalt vainly bestow on those that love thee not!
The Comte d’Artois approached Philippe while the queen was talking to Andrée, and said, “Do you think Washington so very great a general?”
“Certainly a great man, monseigneur.”
“And what effect did our French produce out there?”
“As much good as the English did harm.”
“Ah, you are a partisan of the new ideas, my dear M. Philippe de Taverney; but have you reflected on one thing?”