"Well, well, but your plan," said Chazeul. "It seems that my little sins are to be wiped out, the lady's good favour gained, her unruly spirit broken in, and rendered tractable, all within four-and-twenty hours!" "And it can be done," answered Madame de Chazeul. "First then, we must make it seem to the eyes of all men, that you are recovering her good graces. You must appear together. You must hold conference with her, and seem in her secrets and in her intimacy." "'Tis telling me to pull down the moon," cried Chazeul, "or carry away the gates of the castle on my back like Samson. How am I to do all this? If she refuse me audience, withhold her presence, stay in her chamber, and frown or weep whenever we meet?" "Will it cost you so much to feign a little?" asked his mother. "Perhaps not," replied Chazeul, "but what then? Put me on the track, and I will follow it with any one; but I see not what it is I am to feign." "Several things," replied the Marchioness. "First, kindly tenderness towards her, sorrow for her sorrow, sympathy with her distress, anxiety for its alleviation. You may pretend even to enter into her views of delay, affect not to wish to press her, promise to speak to Monsieur de Liancourt on the subject, and with me, and hold out the hope of gaining our consent to your joining the army for a time, and not returning till some months have passed." "But if she be so enraged against me," said Chazeul, "and if she have discovered what you say she has, will she listen to all this?" "Ay, but that must be one of the first things you soften down," replied the Marchioness, "an obstacle you must remove at once. You must be a repentant sinner, Chazeul; make vague confession of many faults; long to atone for them if circumstances would permit it; and if you can get a tear into your eye, so much the better." "I understand, I understand," said Chazeul laughing. "The tear, I fear I could not manage; but all the rest I will undertake. I see my way clearly now, but not whither it leads, my dear mother. What is to result from all this? When I have persuaded her that I am penitent, and the most humble creature of her will,--when I have shown myself whispering in her ear, or walking in tender melancholy with her, side by side, on the ramparts, what is to be done next?"