The Argosy — page 237: what you’re looking at

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

. A Lady of St. Cyr. 225 ‘So admirably, my lord,” she replied (and was _there not in her tone one faint touch of the acerbity of a woman losing her bloem before the aspect of so much youthful loveliness ? )—“ so admirably that they shall never play again.” At this moment, with a deep bow and acountenance strongly moved, the Duke de Ste. Barbe again addressed her. ‘‘ Madame,” said he, in an agitated voice, “you know all. If you consent, I will accept from your hands the last trust of my poor unhappy sister.” “Shall I have cause to regret it, sir, if I let her leave my quiet home?” asked Madame de Maintenon, her searching look fixed keenly on him. ‘“‘Never,, madame; rely upon my honour: her resemblance to my sister when in her greatest beauty has touched my heart profoundly.” “T will consult His Majesty,” she responded, the severity breaking up Into a genial smile. She turned, and, in a low voice, explained the whole to Louis. It was a position dear toa Frenchman’s heart: the poetic drama was to be crowned with one of prose. No English words can paint the ineffable French grace of that most graceful and dignified, alas! most hollow court, as the young Lucie was called forward from her sisters, to receive a word of benevolence from the king, and, by her protectress, to be placed in the arms of the relative who had left her mother to die in poverty. We may ask, was Lucie happier in the splendour of a ducal palace than in the sequestered tranquillity of St. Cyr? Well, she had learned in that calrn retreat to be modest and pious, and to rest on a stay which will support us alike in a cottage or a palace; and so we may safely leave her, not in the hands of a vacillating and stern relative, but in those of One who never faileth nor forsaketh those who trust in Him. VOL, XIX. conridooe _ SS