“But facts, mother, facts!” “Well, I am listening.” “This morning at ten o’clock they were playing music in Madame’s apartments.” “No harm in that, surely.” “M. de Guiche was talking with her alone--Ah! I forgot to tell you, that, during the last ten days, he has never left her side.” “If they were doing any harm they would hide themselves.” “Very good,” exclaimed the duke, “I expected you to say that. Pray remember with precision the words you have just uttered. This morning I took them by surprise, and showed my dissatisfaction in a very marked manner.” “Rely upon it, that is quite sufficient; it was, perhaps, even a little too much. These young women easily take offense. To reproach them for an error they have not committed is, sometimes, almost equivalent to telling them they might be guilty of even worse.” “Very good, very good; but wait a minute. Do not forget what you have just this moment said, that this morning’s lesson ought to have been sufficient, and that if they had been doing what was wrong, they would have hidden themselves.” “Yes, I said so.” “Well, just now, repenting of my hastiness of the morning, and imagining that Guiche was sulking in his own apartments, I went to pay Madame a visit. Can you guess what, or whom, I found there? Another set of musicians; more dancing, and Guiche himself--he was concealed there.” Anne of Austria frowned. “It was imprudent,” she said. “What did Madame say?” “Nothing.” “And Guiche?” “As much--oh, no! he muttered some impertinent remark or another.” “Well, what is your opinion, Philip?” “That I have been made a fool of; that Buckingham was only a pretext, and that Guiche is the one who is really to blame in the matter.” Anne shrugged her shoulders. “Well,” she said, “what else?” “I wish De Guiche to be dismissed from my household, as Buckingham was, and I shall ask the king, unless--” “Unless what?” “Unless you, my dear mother, who are so clever and so kind, will execute the commission yourself.” “I will not do it, Philip.” “What, madame?” “Listen, Philip; I am not disposed to pay people ill compliments every day; I have some influence over young people, but I cannot take advantage of it without running the chances of losing it altogether. Besides, there is nothing to prove that M. de Guiche is guilty.” “He has displeased me.” “That is your own affair.” “Very well, I know what I shall do,” said the prince, impetuously. Anne looked at him with some uneasiness. “What do you intend to do?” she said. “I will have him drowned in my fish-pond the very next time I find him in my apartments again.” Having launched this terrible threat, the prince expected his mother would be frightened out of her senses; but the queen was unmoved. “Do so,” she said. Philip was as weak as a woman, and began to cry out, “Every one betrays me,--no one cares for me; my mother, even, joins my enemies.”