sharing in this joy. The king went to rejoin the queens; he knew he owed them — one especially — a compensation for his long absence. But madame was not admitted to Monsieur's apartments, and she was informed that Monsieur was asleep. The king, instead of being met by Maria Theresa smiling, as usual with her, found Anne of Austria in the gallery watching for his return, who advanced to meet him, and taking him by the hand, led him to her own apartment. No one ever knew what was the nature of the conversation which took place between them, or rather, what it was that the queen-mother had said to Louis XIV.; but it certainly might easily be guessed from the annoyed expression of the king's face as he left her after the interview.
But we, whose mission it is to interpret all things, as it is also to communicate our interpretations to our readers — we should fail in our duty if we were to leave them in ignorance of the result of this interview. It will be found sufficiently detailed, at least we hope so, in the following chapter.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE BUTTERFLY-CHASE.
The king, on retiring to his apartments to give some directions and to arrange his ideas, found on his toilet-glass a small note, the handwriting of which seemed disguised. He opened it and read:
"Come quickly; I have a thousand things to say to you."
The king and madame had not been separated a sufficiently long time for these thousand things to be the result of the three thousand which they had been saying to each other during the route which separated Valvins from Fontainebleau. The confused and hurried character of the note gave the king a great deal to reflect upon. He occupied himself but slightly with his toilet, and set off to pay his visit to madame. The princess, who did not wish to have the appearance of expecting him, had gone into the gardens with the ladies of her suite. When the king was informed that madame had left her apartments and had gone for a walk in the gardens, he collected all the gentle-
