“It is what I have to do every day. Come, madame, all is ready.”
The queen sighed, and followed the doctor, without waiting for Andrée, who was not to be found.
It was eleven o’clock in the morning, and Charny was asleep, after the troubled night he had gone through. The queen, attired in an elegant morning dress, entered the corridor. The doctor advised her to present herself suddenly, determined to produce a crisis, either for good or ill; but at the door they found a woman standing, who had not time to assume her usual unmoved tranquillity, but showed an agitated countenance, and trembled before them.
“Andrée!” cried the queen.
“Yes, your majesty; you are here too!”
“I sent for you, but they could not find you.”
Andrée, anxious to hide her feelings, even at the price of a falsehood, said, “I heard your majesty had asked for me, and came after you.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“They said you were gone with Doctor Louis, so I guessed it.”
“Well guessed,” replied the queen, who was little suspicious, and forgot immediately her first surprise.