Madame Serpent Read Online Free PDF Page A

to run away; in fact, he wanted to go on sitting here, talking to her; he was afraid that someone else would come into the garden and claim her attention, so that he would have to remember he was ashy boy, awkward and uninteresting.
    ‘You do!’ she told him. ‘You are the son of the King. I am just a lonely
    widow.’
    ‘My father― hates me!’ he spoke vehemently. He dared not say he hated his father, but his tone implied it.
    ‘Oh no! Nobody could hate you. Your father least of all. I have two little girls. I know. Parents cannot hate their own children.’
    ‘My father can. He loves my little brother, Charles. He loves my sisters
    Madeleine and Marguerite. I think too― though he is often angry with him―
    that he loves the Dauphin. But myself― never. I am the one who angers him most.’
    ‘No, no!’
    ‘But I assure you that it is so. His looks, his words tell me so. One can be mistaken in looks, but not in words. Francis is the Dauphin, and one day he will be King, and my father does not forget that. But he sneers at him. He says he is too solemn and dresses like a Spaniard and likes water better than wine. Francis is cleverer than I; he can learn French ways more quickly. But little Charles is the one my father loves best. Lucky Charles! He was too young to be sent to Spain.’
    ‘You could win your father’s favour as easily as Francis.’
    ‘How?’ The boy was pathetic in his eagerness.
    ‘It would take time. Your father has always surrounded himself with people who joke and laugh. He does not mind if the joke goes against himself even, as long as it makes him laugh If you can make your father laugh, you are halfway to his heart.’
    ‘He laughs at me― but in derision.’
    ‘He wants to laugh for amusement. Mind you, his wit high order, and it is not easy.’
    ‘My young brother can make him laugh.’
    ‘Oh, Monsieur Charles will be the King all over again. My lord Duke, if you were less afraid of offending your father, you would offend him less.’
    ‘Yes,’ said the boy eagerly; ‘that is it. I am always wondering what I must answer him, even before he has spoken to me.’
    ‘This is the first thing to learn, then: there is nothing to fear. And when you bow or kiss a lady’s hand, you should not wonder whether you are doing so with a lack of grace. You should not care. You should stand up straight and hold your head high. If you do not try very hard to please people, you can please them more. You must forgive me. I talk too much.’
    ‘Indeed, no! No one has ever spoken so kindly to me before.’
    ‘I am glad I have not bored you, for I was going to take a great liberty. I was going to ask you if you would be so good as to pay a visit to my home and look at those stables of mine― and perhaps ride out and advise about my land.’
    His face lighted up. ‘I can think of nothing I should like better.’ The light died out of his face. ‘I should not be allowed to leave the court.’ He scowled, visualizing the scene with his father. So you wish to visit a lady! My dear Henry, the affairs of the heart must be conducted with some decorum― even here in France! Something like that, he would say, and with that coarseness always so gracefully expressed, would the honour of this beautiful lady. Henry knew he could not bear that to happen.
    ‘You could come accompanied by a few attendants. Why not?’
    ‘My father would never allow it, I fear.’
    ‘Monsieur le Duc , have I your permission to ask your father if I might take a small party, including yourself, for a brief visit to my home?’
    She had a way of putting it that made it seem less unattainable. That was the way with some people. They were able to say with ease what they meant; he was so clumsy.
    ‘That would give me great pleasure,’ he said. ‘But I fear you will soon wish to send me back.’
    She laughed. ‘Forgive me if I say you must dispense with such modesty.
    Always remember that you are the Duke of Orléans, the