Madam de Cleves heard them with such coldness, that she seemed

either not to believe them true, or to think them indifferent to



her; she continued in this temper until the Duke de Nemours spoke

of Madam d'Amboise's billet, which was directed to the Viscount,



and was a proof of all he had been saying; as Madam de Cleves

knew that this lady was a friend of Madam de Themines, she found



some probability in what the Duke de Nemours had said, which made

her think, that the letter perhaps was not addressed to him; this



thought suddenly, and in spite of herself, drew her out of the

coldness and indifferency she had until then been in. The Duke



having read the billet, which fully justified him, presented it

to her to read, and told her she might possibly know the hand.



She could not forbeartaking it, and examining the superscription

to see if it was addressed to the Viscount de Chartres, and



reading it all over, that she might the better judge, if the

letter which was redemanded was the same with that she had in her



hand. The Duke de Nemours added whatever he thought proper to

persuade her of it; and as one is easily persuaded of the truth



of what one wishes, he soon convinced Madam de Cleves that he had

no concern in the letter.



She began now to reason with him concerning the embarrassment and

danger the Viscount was in, to blame his ill conduct, and to



think of means to help him: she was astonished at the Queen's

proceedings, and confessed to the Duke that she had the letter;



in short, she no sooner believed him innocent, but she discoursed

with him with greater ease and freedom, concerning what she would



scarce before vouchsafe to hear; they agreed that the letter

should not be restored to the Queen-Dauphin, for fear she should



show it to Madam de Martigues, who knew Madam de Themines's hand,

and would easily guess, by the interest she had in the Viscount,



that it was addressed to him; they agreed also, that they ought

not to entrust the Queen-Dauphin with all that concerned the



Queen her mother-in-law. Madam de Cleves, under pretence of

serving her uncle, was pleased to be the Duke de Nemours's



confidant in the secrets he had imparted to her.

The Duke would not have confined his discourse to the Viscount's



concerns, but from the liberty he had of free conversation with

her, would have assumed a boldness he had never yet done, had not



a message been brought in to Madam de Cleves, that the

Queen-Dauphin had sent for her. The Duke was forced to withdraw;



he went to the Viscount to inform him, that after he had left

him, he thought it more proper to apply to Madam de Cleves, his



niece, than to go directly to the Queen-Dauphin; he did not want

reasons to make him approve what he had done, and to give him



hopes of good success.

In the meantime Madam de Cleves dressed herself in all haste to



go to the Queen-Dauphin; she was no sooner entered her chamber,

but she called her to her, and whispered her, "I have been



waiting for you these two hours, and was never so perplexed about

disguising a truth as I have been this morning: the Queen has



heard of the letter I gave you yesterday, and believes it was the

Viscount de Chartres that dropped it; you know, she has some



interest to be satisfied in it; she has been in search for the

letter, and has caused Chatelart to be asked for it; who said he



had given it to me; they have been to ask me for it, under

pretence it was an ingenious letter which the Queen had a



curiosity to see; I durst not say that you had it, for fear she

should think I had given it you on your uncle the Viscount's



account, and that there was a correspondence between him and me.

I was already satisfied that his seeing me so often gave her



uneasiness, so that I said the letter was in the clothes I had on

yesterday, and that those who had them in keeping were gone



abroad; give me the letter immediately," added she, "that I may

send it her, and that I may read it before I send it to see if I



know the hand."

Madam de Cleves was harder put to it than she expected; "I don't



know, Madam, what you will do," answered she, "for Monsieur de

Cleves, to whom I gave it to read, returned it to the Duke of



Nemours, who came early this morning to beg him to get it of you.

Monsieur de Cleves had the imprudence to tell him he had it, and



the weakness to yield to the entreaties the Duke de Nemours made

that he would restore it him." "You throw me into the greatest



embarrassment I can possibly be in," replied the Queen-Dauphin;

"and you have given this letter to the Duke de Nemours. Since



it was I that gave it you, you ought not to have restored it

without my leave; what would you have me say to the Queen, and

• persuade [pə´sweid] v.(被)说服；使相信 (初中英语单词)


• hastily [´heistili] ad.急速地；草率地 (初中英语单词)


• spoken [´spəukən] speak的过去分词 (初中英语单词)


• nevertheless [,nevəðə´les] conj.&ad.然而；不过 (初中英语单词)


• plainly [´pleinli] ad.平坦地；简单地 (初中英语单词)


• mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)


• monsieur [mə´sjə:] n.先生 (初中英语单词)


• contents [´kɔ:ntents] n.容纳物；要旨 (初中英语单词)


• princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)


• consequence [´kɔnsikwəns] n.结果；后果；推断 (初中英语单词)


• extraordinary [ik´strɔ:dinəri] a.非常的；额外的 (初中英语单词)


• anxiety [æŋ´zaiəti] n.挂念；渴望；焦虑的事 (初中英语单词)


• presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)


• coldness [´kəuldnis] n.寒冷；冷淡 (初中英语单词)


• apartment [ə´pɑ:tmənt] n.一套房间 (初中英语单词)


• prince [´prins] n.王子；亲王；君主 (初中英语单词)


• astonishment [ə´stɔniʃmənt] n.吃惊；惊异 (初中英语单词)


• assistance [ə´sistəns] n.协作；援助；帮助 (初中英语单词)


• sensible [´sensəbəl] a.感觉得到的 (初中英语单词)


• contrary [´kɔntrəri] a.相反的 n.相反 (初中英语单词)


• probable [´prɔbəbəl] a.大概的n.很可能的事 (初中英语单词)


• therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)


• advise [əd´vaiz] vt.忠告；建议；通知 (初中英语单词)


• confess [kən´fes] vt.供认；坦白；承认 (初中英语单词)


• acquaint [ə´kweint] vt.使….认识；告知 (初中英语单词)


• worthy [´wə:ði] a.有价值的；值得的 (初中英语单词)


• surprising [sə´praiziŋ] a.惊人的；意外的 (初中英语单词)


• temper [´tempə] n.韧度 v.锻炼；调和 (初中英语单词)


• whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)


• innocent [´inəsənt] a.无罪的；单纯的 (初中英语单词)


• approve [ə´pru:v] v.赞成；同意；批准 (初中英语单词)


• meantime [´mi:ntaim] n.&ad.其间；同时 (初中英语单词)


• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)


• weakness [´wi:knis] n.虚弱；弱点，缺点 (初中英语单词)


• restore [ri´stɔ:] vt.(使)恢复；修复 (初中英语单词)


• tennis [´tenis] n.网球(运动) (高中英语单词)


• unfortunately [ʌn´fɔ:tʃunitli] ad.不幸；不朽；可惜 (高中英语单词)


• concerned [kən´sə:nd] a.有关的；担心的 (高中英语单词)


• repose [ri´pəuz] v.&n.(使)休息；安息 (高中英语单词)


• desperately [´despəritli] ad.绝望地；拼命地 (高中英语单词)


• refusal [ri´fju:zəl] n.拒绝；优先取舍权 (高中英语单词)


• jealousy [´dʒeləsi] n.妒忌；猜忌 (高中英语单词)


• communicate [kə´mju:nikeit] vi.通讯；传达；传播 (高中英语单词)


• chamber [´tʃeimbə] n.房间；议院；会议室 (高中英语单词)


• wherein [weər´in] ad.那里面 (高中英语单词)


• leisure [´leʒə] n.空闲；悠闲；安定 (高中英语单词)


• related [ri´leitid] a.叙述的；有联系的 (高中英语单词)


• indifferent [in´difrənt] a.不关心的；中立的 (高中英语单词)


• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)


• probability [,prɔbə´biliti] n.或有；可能性 (高中英语单词)


• concerning [kən´sə:niŋ] prep.关于 (高中英语单词)


• pretence [pri´tens] n.假装；托词；无理要求 (高中英语单词)


• discourse [´diskɔ:s] n.论文；演说；说教 (高中英语单词)


• ingenious [in´dʒi:niəs] a.富于创新的；巧妙的 (高中英语单词)


• correspondence [,kɔri´spɔndəns] n.通信；符合；相当 (高中英语单词)


• seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)


• convincing [kən´vinsiŋ] a.有说服力的；有力的 (英语四级单词)


• conjure [´kʌndʒə] v.祈求；召(鬼)；变魔术 (英语四级单词)


• uneasiness [ʌn´i:zinis] n.不安，担忧；不自在 (英语四级单词)


• impatience [im´peiʃəns] n.不耐烦，急躁 (英语四级单词)


• forbear [fɔ:´beə, fə-] v.容忍；克制 n.祖先 (英语四级单词)


• embarrassment [im´bærəsmənt] n.窘迫；困惑；为难 (英语四级单词)


• entrust [in´trʌst] vt.委托；信托 (英语四级单词)


• boldness [´bəuldnis] n.大胆；冒失；显著 (英语四级单词)


• roundabout [´raundəbaut] a.&n.间接的(方式) (英语六级单词)


• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)


• vouchsafe [vautʃ´seif] v.赐予；俯允 (英语六级单词)