"Well, there will not be much of her fortune left to repair holes in his," replied another. "Such extravagance! And she looks all the uglier for it all. And I hear he is fond of pretty women." The speaker glanced with some satisfaction at her own pleasing reflection in Anne's mirror.
"Was his first wife well favoured?"
"Well, she was straight and had a quiet tongue."
"Herr Jesus! Why should he wed Fräulein Anne?" cried another damsel, wearily seating herself. "Not for her beauty, nor her money——"
"For their 'reasons of State,'" quoted Rénèe, "and also because he does not know her. This will prove an ugly marriage. He does not look a man to suffer a curst wife."
"Perhaps she will be sweeter now," replied the other.
"There is no sweetness in her," said a third, gathering up the bunches of lavender, allspice leaves, rosemary, and orris-root that were to be laid among the bride's clothes in the long carved caskets.
"How my head aches!" said Rénèe.
"It is her voice," replied one of the women, "it rings in the head like the clanging of a brass bell. Come and see the dancing. We can leave this work for a while."
Rénèe and three of her companions slipped away and went by the back entrances to the gallery overlooking the Grand Hall; the soldiers allowed them to pass, and the pages brought them sugar sticks, fruit, and comfits left from the feast.