I
endeavored to calm her fears, and to-day I have confided to her all my
sorrows.
I will try to write down all these recent events. If God ever permits me
to enjoy happiness and tranquillity, I will again read these pages, and
will better appreciate the value of a quiet felicity.
Six weeks passed after our marriage, and no one had the least suspicion:
neither the king, the court, nor the watchful society surrounding me,
had penetrated our secret; all called me as usual, the Starostine
Krasinska. The prince royal, under the pretext of his health, went
nowhere, and the prince palatine managed our interviews. But a week
since the prince royal began to go out, and paid a visit to my aunt, the
princess. I was in the saloon when he was announced; it was the first
time since our marriage that I had seen him in presence of a third
person, and I found it impossible to hide my confusion. I could not see
and hear him without telling him through my eyes that I loved him.
The princess observed me. When he was gone, she scolded me, and
reproached me with what she called my coquetry and imprudence; I could
not bear her injustice, and very rashly replied, that no one had a right
to blame me when my own conscience absolved me. The prince royal came
again the next day; the princess was abstracted, and a dissatisfaction,
which she strove in vain to disguise, appeared in her whole manner. He
was entirely occupied with me, and did not perceive the storm which was
gathering; not having been able to speak with me alone on that day, he
had written to me, and while pretending to play with my work basket, he
slipped a note into it.
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