[Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas Pere]@TWC D-Link bookTen Years Later CHAPTER XL: The Nymphs of the Park of Fontainebleau 2/15
It rarely happened that any uneasiness was excited on his account, whenever a question of elegance or taste was under discussion; and De Guiche's defeat was accordingly attributed by the greater number present to his courtier-like tact and ability.
But there were others--keen-sighted observers are always to be met with at court--who remarked his paleness and his altered looks; which he could neither feign nor conceal, and their conclusion was that De Guiche was not acting the part of a flatterer.
All these sufferings, successes, and remarks were blended, confounded, and lost in the uproar of applause.
When, however, the queens expressed their satisfaction and the spectators their enthusiasm, when the king had retired to his dressing-room to change his costume, and whilst Monsieur, dressed as a woman, as he delighted to be, was in his turn dancing about, De Guiche, who had now recovered himself, approached Madame, who, seated at the back of the theater, was waiting for the second part, and had quitted the others for the purpose of creating a sort of solitude for herself in the midst of the crowd, to meditate, as it were, beforehand, upon chorographic effects; and it will be perfectly understood that, absorbed in deep meditation, she did not see, or rather pretended not to notice, anything that was passing around her.
De Guiche, observing that she was alone, near a thicket constructed of painted cloth, approached her.
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