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CHAPTER XXIV.
"We make ourselves the path wherein we tread."
"Well, all we can do is to amuse ourselves," exclaimed the Comtesse de Soissons, as she leant back in the large arm-chair in her dressing-room that-night. "All my uncle's fine matrimonial projects are vanished into thin air. I see that his Britannic Majesty will not marry Hortense—I see that Hortense will marry Meilleraye. Business before pleasure, I am ready to grant; but when there is none, il faut s'amuser."
"We will do our best," replied Francesca; "but I fear, to use a national proverb, you must take the will for the deed."
"I shall take no such thing," returned Marie; "for here the will and the deed rest with myself, and I am one with whom they always go together."
"You are fortunate."
