"Have you seen what you tell
me, dame, or is it but the idle gossip of the city, no truth in it?
Oh, say it is the idle gossip of the city! Francois Bigot is not
going to marry this lady? He is not so faithless"--to me, she was
about to add, but did not.
"So faithless to her, she means, poor soul!" soliliquized the dame.
"It is but little you know my gay master if you think he values a
promise made to any woman, except to deceive her! I have seen too
many birds of that feather not to know a hawk, from beak to claw.
When I was the Charming Josephine I took the measure of men's
professions, and never was deceived but once. Men's promises are
big as clouds, and as empty and as unstable!"
"My good dame, I am sure you have a kind heart," said Caroline, in
reply to a sympathizing pressure of the hand. "But you do not know,
you cannot imagine what injustice you do the Intendant"--Caroline
hesitated and blushed--"by mentioning the report of his marriage
with that lady. Men speak untruly of him--"
"My dear Lady, it is what the women say that frightens one! The men
are angry, and won't believe it; but the women are jealous, and will
believe it even if there be nothing in it! As a faithful servant I
ought to have no eyes to watch my master, but I have not failed to
observe that the Chevalier Bigot is caught man-fashion, if not
husband-fashion, in the snares of the artful Angelique.
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