Having said this, the Queen-Dauphin took her leave of Madam de Cleves,
and the next day Madame's marriage was publicly known; some days after
the King and the Queens went to visit the Princess of Cleves; the Duke
de Nemours, who had expected her return with the utmost impatience, and
languished for an opportunity of speaking to her in private, contrived
to wait upon her at an hour, when the company would probably be
withdrawing, and nobody else come in; he succeeded in his design, and
came in when the last visitors were going away.
The Princess was sitting on her bed, and the hot weather, together with
the sight of the Duke de Nemours, gave her a blush that added to her
beauty; he sat over against her with a certain timorous respect, that
flows from a real love; he continued some minutes without speaking; nor
was she the less at a loss, so that they were both silent a good while:
at last the Duke condoled with her for her mother's death; Madam de
Cleves was glad to give the conversation that turn, spoke a
considerable time of the great loss she had had, and at last said, that
though time had taken off from the violence of her grief, yet the
impression would always remain so strong, that it would entirely change
her humour. "Great troubles and excessive passions," replied the Duke,
"make great alterations in the mind; as for me, I am quite another man
since my return from Flanders; abundance of people have taken notice of
this change, and the Queen-Dauphin herself spoke to me of it
yesterday."
"It is true," replied the Princess, "she has observed it,
and I think I remember to have heard her say something about it." "I'm
not sorry, Madam," replied the Duke, "that she has discerned it, but I
could wish some others in particular had discerned it too; there are
persons to whom we dare give no other evidences of the passion we have
for them, but by things which do not concern them; and when we dare not
let them know we love them, we should be glad at least to have them see
we are not desirous of being loved by any other; we should be glad to
convince them, that no other beauty, though of the highest rank, has
any charms for us, and that a Crown would be too dear, if purchased
with no less a price than absence from her we adore: women ordinarily,"
continued he, "judge of the passion one has for them, by the care one
takes to oblige, and to be assiduous about them; but it's no hard
matter to do this, though they be ever so little amiable; not to give
oneself up to the pleasure of pursuing them, to shun them through fear
of discovering to the public, and in a manner to themselves, the
sentiments one has for them, here lies the difficulty; and what still
more demonstrates the truth of one's passion is, the becoming entirely
changed from what one was, and the having no longer a gust either for
ambition or pleasure, after one has employed one's whole life in
pursuit of both."