TEN YEARS LATER. 469 feet began to slip on the clamp grass. Louis again looked round him with greater attention than before, and perceiv- ing an enormous oak with widespreading branches, he hur- riedly drew La Valliere beneath its protecting shelter. The poor girl looked round her on all sides, and seemed half- afraid, half-desirous of being followed. The king made her lean her back against the trunk of the tree, whose vast cir- cumference, protected by the thickness of the foliage, was as dry as if at that moment the rain had not been falling in torrents. He himself remained standing before her with his head uncovered. After a few minutes, however, some drops of rain penetrated through the branches of the tree and fell on the king's forehead, who did not pay any atten- tion to it. "Oh, sire!" murmured La Valliere, pushing the king's hat toward him. But the king simply bowed, and deter- minedly refused to cover his head. "Now or never is the time to offer your place," said Fouquet, in Aramis' ear. "Now or never is the time to listen, and not lose a sylla- ble of what they may have to say to each other," replied Aramis, in Fouquet's ear. In fact, they both remained perfectly silent, and the king's voice reached them where they were. "Believe me," said the king, "I perceive, or rather I can imagine your uneasiness; believe how sincerely I regret to have isolated you from the rest of the company, and to have brought you also to a spot where you will be incon- venienced by the rain. You are wet already, and perhaps are cold, too?" "No, sire." "And yet you tremble?" "I am afraid, sire, that my absence may be misinter- preted; at a moment, too, when all the others are reunited." "I would not hesitate to propose returning to the car- riages, Mademoiselle de la Valliere; but pray look and listen, and tell me if it be possible to attempt to make the slightest progress at the present." In fact, the thunder was still rolling, and the rain con- tinued to fall in torrents. "Besides," continued the king, "no possible interpreta- tion can be made which would be to your discredit. Are you not with the King of France — in other words, with the first gentleman of the kingdom?" "Certainly, sire," replied La Valliere, "and it is a very
