whole company. The King and the two Queens, remembering that the
Duke and Princess had never seen one another before, found
something very particular in seeing them dance together without
knowing each other; they called them, as soon as they had ended
their dance, without giving them time to speak to anybody, and
asked them if they had not a desire to know each other, and if
they were not at some loss about it. "As for me, Madam," said
the Duke to the Queen, "I am under no uncertainty in this
matter; but as the Princess of Cleves has not the same reasons to
lead her to guess who I am, as I have to direct me to know her, I
should be glad if your Majesty would be pleased to let her know
my name." "I believe," said the Queen-Dauphin, "that she
knows your name as well as you know hers." "I assure you,
Madam," replied the Princess a little embarrassed, "that I am
not so good a guesser as you imagine." "Yes, you guess very
well," answered the Queen-Dauphin; "and your unwillingness to
acknowledge that you know the Duke of Nemours, without having
seen him before, carries in it something very obliging to him."
The Queen interrupted them, that the ball might go on; and the
Duke de Nemours took out the Queen-Dauphin. This Princess was a
perfect beauty, and such she appeared in the eyes of the Duke de
Nemours, before he went to Flanders; but all this evening he
could admire nothing but Madam de Cleves.

The Chevalier de Guise, whose idol she still was, sat at her
feet, and what had passed filled him with the utmost grief; he
looked upon it as ominous for him, that fortune had destined the
Duke of Nemours to be in love with the Princess of Cleves. And
whether there appeared in reality any concern in the Princess's
face, or whether the Chevalier's jealousy only led him to suspect