Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 50: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

42 HER ROYAL LOVER. self that this time his jealousy rested upon serious basis, for everybody, the most artless of the young girls as well as the most insignificant of the lieu- tenants, had remarked that which, during a whole night, had banished a sleep that his rankling heart sought in vain. Undoubtedly the king was desper- ately in love with the ambassadress. Charles Ferdinand of Thessaly, aged forty-five years, in all the heydey of his maturity, was a handsome man, whose prestige was still increased by his rank, for kings, queens, and princes appear always more beautiful than they really are. The next morning, when Monsieur de Mineleko, according to his custom, entered in the chamber of his wife, she, at the appearance of her husband, whose discomposed features sufficiently announced what struggles he had just undergone, saw well that a scene was about to burst forth. The sleep of Najeska Ivanowna had not been less disturbed than that of the prince. Her unexpected meeting with her first betrothed distressed her more than she wished to confess to him, for she had every- thing to fear from the well-known jealousy of her husband. For the present, that thought occupied her more than the remembrance of the attentions of the king, for that which disquiets, that which terri- fies, haunts the mind a great deal more than that which flatters and charms. “Have you slept well?” asked Monsieur de Min- eleko, of his wife, whose lips coldly touched the brow which the ambassadress presented to him. “Admirably,” said she; “I was exhausted with fatigue.” “Fatigue resulting from all the coquetries with which you have bombarded the king.” (E(0) mm C JOO KH (E(0)