.

The Advisers.
The king left Madame in a state of agitation it would have been difficult even for himself to have explained.

It is impossible, in fact, to depict the secret play of those strange sympathies which, suddenly and apparently without any cause, are excited, after many years passed in the greatest calmness and indifference, by two hearts destined to love each other.

Why had Louis formerly disdained, almost hated, Madame?
Why did he now find the same woman so beautiful, so captivating?
And why, not only were his thoughts occupied about her, but still more, why were they so continuously occupied about her?
Why, in fact, had Madame, whose eyes and mind were sought for in another direction, shown during the last week towards the king a semblance of favor which encouraged the belief of still greater regard.

It must not be supposed that Louis proposed to himself any plan of seduction; the tie which united Madame to his brother was, or at least, seemed to him, an insuperable barrier; he was even too far removed from that barrier to perceive its existence.
But on the downward path of those passions in which the heart rejoices, towards which youth impels us, no one can decide where to stop, not even the man who has in advance calculated all the chances of his own success or another's submission.