"Your highness knows that his majesty cannot bear unequal matches."
"Yes; love matches are called unequal. That is a great phrase; just as empty as all those are which rule the world and enslave individuals." The princess uttered a deep sigh, and, as was her wont, rapidly changing her humor, said, with irony and impatience to her gouvernante, "Maupertuis, you are listening to us, and not counting the stars, as I bade you. What is the use of being the wife of a great philosopher, if you listen to the chattering of two such madcaps as we are?—Yes, I say," said she, again speaking to her favorite, "the king did love that Barberini. I have good reason to know that, after the performance, he used, with Jordon and Chazols, to take his tea frequently in her room, and that she went more than once to sup at Sans Souci, which, until her time, was never the fashion at Potsdam. Do you wish me to speak more plainly? She lived there for weeks, and, it may be, for months. You see I know what is going on well enough, and that my brother's mysterious airs do not impose on me."
"Since your royal highness is so well informed, I need not say that for state reasons, the king sometimes wishes persons to think he is not so austere as he is represented, though, in fact—"
"Though in fact my brother never really loved any woman, not even his wife. Well, I have no faith in this virtue, or rather in this coldness. He has always been a hypocrite. You cannot make me think La Barberini always remained in his palace merely to seem to be his mistress. She is beautiful as an angel, intellectual as a devil, educated, and speaks, I know not how many languages."
"She is virtuous; she adores her husband."
"And her husband adores her the more because their marriage was unequal. Will you answer me, Von Kleist? I suspect you, my noble widow, of being in love with some page or bachelor?"
"Would your highness like to see such an unequal union as that of a king and an actress?"
"Ah, with Porporina, the thing would not be so terrible. There is on the stage, as at court, a perfect hierarchy. You know that is a whim and disease of the human heart. A singer must have more self-respect than a dancing-girl, and Porporina, they say, has more accomplishments and knows more languages even than La Barberini. My brother has a passion for speaking tongues he does not understand. Music, too, he seems very fond of, you see, and that is another point of contact with the prima donna. She too, goes to Potsdam and has the rooms in the new Sans Souci the Barberini used to occupy, and sings at the king's private concerts. Is not this enough to make my conjectures probable?"
"Your highness seeks in vain to discover any weakness in our great prince. All passes too openly and aboveboard for love to have anything to do with it."
"Love! Certainly not. He knows nothing about that. There is, however, a certain charm—a kind of intrigue; everybody, you must confess, says that."