ignorant of it; I dare ask no more. Having said this he withdrew, without waiting for her answer.
The queen-dauphin went to take a walk, attended with the rest of the ladies; and the duke de Nemours went home to shut himself up in his closet, not being able to support in public the ecstasy he was in on having a picture of madam de Cleves; he tasted everything that was sweet in love; he was in love with the finest woman of the court; he found she loved him against her will, and saw in all her actions that sort of care and embarrassment which love produces in young and innocent hearts.
At night great search was made for the picture; and having found the case it used to be kept in, they never suspected it had been stolen, but thought it might have fallen out by chance. The prince of Cleves was very much concerned for the loss of it; and after having searched for it a great while to no purpose, he told his wife, but with an air that showed he did not think so, that without doubt she had some secret lover, to whom she had given the picture, or who had stole it; and that none but a lover would have been contented with the picture without the case.
These words, though spoke in jest, made a lively impression in the mind of madam de Cleves; they gave her remorse, and she reflected on the violence of her inclination which hurried her on to love the duke of Nemours; she found she was no longer mistress of her words or countenance; she imagined that Lignerolles was returned; that she had nothing to fear from the affair of England, nor any cause to suspect the queen-dauphin; in a word, that she had no refuge or defence against the duke de Nemours but by retiring; but as she was not at her liberty to retire, she found herself in a very great extremity, and ready to fall into the last misfortune, that of discovering to the duke the inclination she had for him. She remembered all that her mother had said to her on her death-bed, and the advice which she gave her, to enter on any resolutions, however
