"I have noticed him, Monsieur. Is he anything like you, as you were in your youth?" It was admirable, but not even Anne dreamed of the delicacy of the thread which held together madame's tones.
"Modesty compels me to remain silent," replied the marquis.
"And how goes Mazarin's foreign policy?" asked De Lauson.
"Politics is a weed which I have cast out of my garden, your Excellency," said the marquis, laughing.
Madame had a grateful thought for the governor, and she regretted that she could not express it aloud. He had changed the current from a dangerous channel.
It was the marquis who opened the door for the ladies; it was the marquis who said good night with an inflection which gave it a new meaning; it was the marquis who intruded into madame's thoughts, causing her partly to forget the letter and the broken sentence of D'Hérouville's.
"What an extraordinary man he is, that marquis!" was Anne's comment as they mounted the stairs.
"Monsieur le Chevalier has yet a good deal to learn from his father. See the moon, Anne; how beautiful it is!"
"Your Excellency," began the marquis, resuming his seat, "where may I find Monsieur le Comte d'Hérouville this evening?"
"I am at a loss to say," was the reply, "unless he is at the hospital, which I understand he left this day."