The court ladies did not treat Egle with greater tenderness. They suspected her intimacies, gave her gallants, even honored her with some great adventures, made her a party concerned in others: they knew particulars, and quoted witnesses. "Good," whispered they, "she has been surprized _tête à tête_ with Melraim in one of the groves of the great park. Egle does not want wit," added they; "but Melraim has too much good sense to be amused with her speeches alone, at ten at night, in a grove."--"You are mistaken," said a _Petit-Maitre_, "I have walked with her a hundred times in the dusk of the evening, and found my account in it. But _à propos_, do you know that Zulemar is daily at her toilette?"--"Doubtless, we know it, and that she has no toilette but when her husband is in waiting at court."----"Poor Celebi," continued another, "indeed his wife advertises him by the aigrette and diamond buckles, which she received of the pacha Ismael."----"Is that true, madam?"----"It is strict truth, I have it from her own mouth: but in the name of Brama let this go no farther. Egle is my friend, and I should be very sorry"----"Alas," cried a third sorrowfully, "the poor little creature ruins herself very chearfully. A great pity truly. But twenty intrigues at a time, that seems rather too much." The _Petits-Maitres_ were not more sparing of her. One related a hunting match, in which she and he lost themselves together. Another, out of respect for the sex, suppress'd the consequences of a very smart conversation he held with her at a masquerade, where he met her. A third made a panegyric on her wit and charms, and ended it by shewing her portrait, which he declared he had from the best hands. "This portrait," said a fourth, "is more like her than that, of which she made a present to Jenaki."