36 STORIES FROM DAUDET

up and down the marble staircases at
arun. The galleries are full of pages
and courtiers in silken clothes, who go
from one group to another asking for
news in low voices. . . . On the great
stone terraces the ladies-in-waiting make
deep curtsies, and wipe their eyes with
delicate embroidered handkerchiefs.

In the Orangery there is a great
assembly of doctors in their robes.
They may be seen through the windows
shaking their long black sleeves and
gravely nodding their stiffly - curled
periwigs. The governor and the squire
of the little Dauphin walk up and
down outside the door waiting for the
medical verdict. ‘The cooks pass by
without bowing. The squire swears
like a heathen. ‘The governor quotes
Horace. . And all the time a plaintive
whinny is heard from the stables. It
is the Dauphin’s sorrel horse, which the
grooms have forgotten to feed, neighing
sorrowfully before his empty manger.
And the king: Where is our Sovereign