It is a liaison too public for intrigue, uneasy enough for marriage!
The constant reproaches she addresses to her ladies in waiting for their lack of devotion, tends rather to enrage than to edify these pretty sinners. Mademoiselle de Pons, with a smile and a toss of the head, draws Mademoiselle de la Mothe into a corner, and repeats some hard words the Queen has spoken to her. Mademoiselle de Hautefort, of a quick, impulsive temperament, is continually either in a passion or in tears. The Duchesse de Chevreuse is usually grave, and more silent than she ever was before. The Duchesse de Noailles, lady of the bedchamber, her attendance at the Palais Royal over, orders her coach, and, in company with the Duchesse de Sennécy, returns home to her hôtel in the Place Royale, in a very bad humour. Here a party of ladies, "her nineteen bosom friends," are awaiting her arrival. They are all eager for gossip, and all pledged to a vow of eternal secrecy, a promise they will keep as long as the retailer of the scandal is speaking. Coffee has been handed round in delicate cups of Oriental porcelain. Bonbons and cakes, served on trays of gold repoussé, have been discussed; the ladies lean back in their chairs, to listen with greater ease. Then the Duchesse de Noailles, addressing herself particularly to Madame de Sennécy and a certain Comtesse de Lude, remarkable for a thin pinched face and a very red nose, begins.
ANNE OF AUSTRIA.
CHAPTER XI.
THE TWO DUCHESSES.