"No one can overhear us, can they?"

"Nobody, my father! My women are sleeping in the fourth chamber from
here, and I have myself fastened the intervening doors. The anteroom
through which you came is, as you know, entirely empty, and nobody
can conceal himself there. It remains, then, only to fasten the door
leading thence into the corridor, in order to be secure from
interruption."

She hastened into the anteroom to fasten the door.

"Now, my father, we are secure from listeners," said she, as she
returned and resumed her place on the ottoman.

"And the walls, my child? know you whether or no the walls are safe?
You look at me with an expression of doubt and surprise! My God,
what a harmless and innocent little maiden you still are! Have I not
constantly reiterated the great and wise lesson, 'Doubt everything
and mistrust everything, even what you see.' He who will make his
fortune at court, must first of all mistrust everybody, and consider
everybody his enemy, whom he is to flatter, because he can do him
harm, and whom he is to hug and kiss, until in some happy embrace he
can either plunge a dagger into his breast wholly unobserved, or
pour poison into his mouth. Trust neither men nor walls, Jane, for I
tell you, however smooth and innocent both may appear, still there
may he found an ambuscade behind the smooth exterior. But I will for
the present believe that these walls are innocent, and conceal no
listeners. I will believe it, because I know this room. Those were
fine and charming days in which I became acquainted with it. Then I