Ten Years Later: Louise de la Valliere by Alexandre Dumas Chapter 44 Page 3

The queen colored, for she now began to perceive the drift of her friend’s remark. “It was very wrong,” she said, “to have neglected you.”

“Oh! madame, I know the king has inherited the hatred his father bore me. The king would exile me if he knew I were in the Palais Royal.”

“I cannot say that the king is very well disposed towards you, duchesse,” replied the queen; “but I could — secretly, you know — ”

The duchesse’s disdainful smile produced a feeling of uneasiness in the queen’s mind.

“Duchesse,” she hastened to add, “you did perfectly right to come here, even were it only to give us the happiness of contradicting the report of your death.”