unfortunately, had just been torn up, and the King curtly rejoined, "You
surprise me, madame; the portrait I had given to me of her was a totally
different one."

That same evening, when the young Marquis d'Alincour spoke to me about
this petition which had never obtained any answer, I requested him to go
and see Madame Scarron as soon as possible, and tell her that, in her own
interest, I should be pleased to receive her.

She lost no time in paying me a visit. Her black attire served only to
heighten the astounding whiteness of her complexion. Effusively thanking
me for interesting myself in her most painful case, she added:

"There is, apparently, some obstacle against me. I have presented two
petitions and two memoranda; being unsupported, both have been left
unanswered, and I have now just made the following resolve, madame, of
which you will not disapprove. M. Scarron, apparently well off, had only
a life interest in his property. Upon his death, his debts proved in
excess of his capital, and I, deeming it my duty to respect his
intentions and his memory, paid off everybody, and left myself nothing.
To-day, Madame la Princesse de Nemours wishes me to accompany her to
Lisbon as her secretary, or rather as her friend.

"Being about to acquire supreme power as a sovereign, she intends, by
some grand marriage, to keep me there, and then appoint me her
lady-in-waiting."

"And you submit without a murmur to such appalling exile?" I said to
Madame Scarron. "Is such a pretty, charming person as yourself fitted
for a Court of that kind, and for such an odd sort of climate?"