The clock had struck four some time, and Madame de
la Fite said she feared they kept me from dinner.
I knew it must soon be ready, and therefore made
but a slight negative. She then, with an anxious
look at her watch, said she feared she was already
too late for her own little dinner. I was shocked
at a hint I had no power to notice, and heard it in
silence—silence unrepressing! for she presently
added, “You dine alone, don’t you?”
“Y-e-s,—if Mrs. Schwellenberg is
not well enough to come down stairs to dinner.”
“And can you dine, ma ch`ere mademoiselle—can
you dine at that great table alone?”
“I must !—the table is not mine.”
“Yes, in Mrs. Schwellenberg’s absence
it is.”
414
“It has never been made over to me, and I take
no power that is not given to me.”
“But the queen, my dearest ma’am—the
queen, if she knew such a person as Madame de la Roche
was here.”
She stopped, and I was quite disconcerted. An
attack so explicit, and in presence of Madame de la
Roche, was beyond all my expectations. She then
went to the window, and exclaimed, “It rains!—Mon
Dieu! que ferons-nous?—My poor littel dinner!—it
will be all spoilt!—La pauvre Madame de
la Roche! une telle femme!”
I was now really distressed, and wished much to invite
them both to stay; but I was totally helpless ; and
could only look, as I felt, in the utmost embarrassment.
The rain continued. Madame de la Roche could
understand but imperfectly what passed, and waited
its result with an air of smiling patience.
I endeavoured to talk of other things — but
Madame de la Fite was restless in returning to this
charge. She had several times given me very
open hints of her desire to dine at Mrs. Schwellenberg’s
table ; but I had hitherto appeared not to comprehend
them: she was now determined to come home to the
point; and the more I saw her determination, the less
liable I became to being overpowered by it.
At length John came to announce dinner.
Madame de la Fite looked at me in a most expressive
manner, as she rose and walked towards the window,
exclaiming that the rain would not cease; and Madame
de la Roche cast upon me a most tender smile, while
she lamented that some accident must have prevented
her carriage from coming for her. I felt excessively
ashamed, and could only beg them not to be in haste,
faithfully assuring them I was by no means disposed
for eating.
Poor Madame de la Fite now lost all command of herself,
and desiring to speak to me in my own room, said,
pretty explicitly, that certainly I might keep anybody
to dinner, at so great a table, and all alone, if
I wished it.
I was obliged to be equally frank. I acknowledged
that I had reason to believe I might have had that
power, from the custom of my predecessor, Mrs. Haggerdorn,
upon my first succeeding to her ; but that I was then
too uncertain of any Of my privileges to assume a
single one of them unauthorised by the queen.
Madame de la Fite was not at all satisfied, and significantly
said,
