For  myself,  I  am  delighted  with  the  hope  of  being  his  successor ;
you  understand  me,  my  pretty  cousin.  If,  after  all  that  fortune
wishes  to  put  in  your  way,  I  do  not  make  mine,  it  will  be
entirely  your  fault ;  but  you  will  surely  be  careful,  for  you
really  must  help  me  in  some  way.  I  think  you  will  be  some-
what embarrassed  between  the  two  rivals ;  I  seem  to  hear  you
saying,

"Des  deux  c6tes  j'ai  beaucoup  de  chagrin;

O  Dieu,  1'etrange  peine  !
Dois-je  chasser  1'ami  de  mon  cousin  ?
Dois-je  chasser  le  cousin  de  la  Reine?

"  Perhaps  you  are  afraid  to  attach  yourself  to  the  service  of
princes,  and  my  example  may  deter  you.  Perhaps  the  figure


zoo  THE  QUEEN  OF  LETTER  WRITERS

of  one  displeases  you,  and  perhaps  the  face  of  the  other.  Let
me  hear  something  of  this  latter,  and  of  the  progress  he  has
made  since  my  departure.  How  many  free-patents  has  your
liberty  cost  him  ?

"  Fortune  is  making  you  splendid  advances,  my  dear  cousin  ;
do  not  be  ungrateful.  You  are  as  much  infatuated  with  virtue
as  if  it  were  a  real  good,  and  you  despise  wealth  as  if  you
could  never  be  in  need  of  it.  Do  you  not  know  that  old  Senne-
terre,  a  sensible  man  of  great  experience,  said  that  people  of
honour  go  barefooted  ?  We  shall  see  you  one  day  regretting
the  time  you  have  lost ;  we  shall  see  you  repenting  of  having  so
badly  employed  your  youth,  and  of  having  with  so  much
difficulty  striven  to  acquire  and  preserve  a  reputation  which
a  calumniator  may  destroy,  and  which  depends  more  on  good
fortune  than  on  your  good  conduct.
