Monsieur de Menneval entered, and was greatly troubled to see the King in the widow's boudoir.
"Baron," said his Majesty, "Monsieur de Beaugency was deeply in love with the Marchioness; but he was more deeply still in love—since he would not renounce it, to please her—with the embassy to Prussia. And you, you love the Marchioness so much better than you love me, that you would only enter my service for her sake. This leads me to believe that you would be but a lukewarm public servant, and that Monsieur de Beaugency will make an excellent ambassador. He will start for Berlin this evening; and you shall marry the Marchioness. I will be present at the ceremony."
"Marchioness," whispered Louis XV. in the ear of his god-daughter, "true love is that which does not shrink from a sacrifice."
And the King peeled the second orange and eat it, as he placed the hand of the widow in that of the Baron.
"I have been making three persons happy: the Marchioness, whose indecision I have relieved; the Baron, who shall marry her; and Monsieur do Beaugency, who will perchance prove a sorry ambassador. In all this, I have only neglected my own interests, for I have been eating the oranges without sugar.... And yet they pretend to say that I am a selfish Monarch?"
THE MISSING MARINERS,
A DREAM OF THE ARCTIC SEAS.
This fanciful sketch was written and published, before the fate of Sir John Franklin and his Discovery Ships was known.
There was not a curtain of any kind over the window.