"As doctor; it is my day on duty," he replied.
She beckoned him to follow her into a little sideroom.
"You see, sir," she began, "that you were wrong the other day when you assured me that the King ran no risk of murder. A woman was killed by a shot aimed at him and striking you, without injury. Who told me so? gentlemen of the escort who saw your button fly."
"I do not believe it was a crime, or, if so, one to be imputed to the people," returned Gilbert, hesitatingly.
"Who are we to attribute it to, then?" she demanded, fixing her eyes upon him.
"I have been studying the masses some time," he responded: "when in fury the mobs tear and slay like a tiger; but in cold blood, they seek no go-betweens. They want to make the blood fly with their own claws and fangs."
"As witness, Foulon and his son-in-law Berthier Savigny, accused of complicity in the Great Grain Fraud, and ripped to pieces by the crowd? and Flesselles, slain by a pistol! But the accounts of their atrocious executions may be untrue, we crowned heads are so engirt by flatterers."
"Madam, you do not believe any more than I, that Flesselles was killed by the mob. Others of higher degree were more interested in his death. As for the King, those who love their country believe he is useful to it, and these stand between him and the assassin eagerly."
"Alas," said she, "there was a time when a good Frenchman would have expressed his sentiments in better terms than those. It was not possible then to love his country without loving his rulers."
Gilbert blushed and bowed, feeling the thrill at his heart which the Queen could impart in her periods of winning intimacy.
"Madam, I beg to boast that I love the monarchy better than many."
"Are we not at an era when it is not enough to say so, but actions should speak?"
"Madam, I was your enemy yesterday, when you had me imprisoned, and now I am your servant."
"But whence the change? it is not in your nature, doctor, to change your feelings, opinion and belief so readily. You are a man with a deep-rooted memory; you know how to lengthen out your vengeance. Tell me the aim of your change?"
"Madam, you reproach me with loving my country too dearly."
"You love it so as to stoop to serve me, the foreigner? no I am a Frenchwoman--I love my country. You smile--but it is my country. I have adopted it. German by birth, I am French through the heart; but I love France through the King and the respect due the God which consecrated me to it. But I understand you; it is not the same thing. You love France purely and simply for France's sake."