"Well," answered Louis, "we will at least seek to give him such an
education that he shall be able to fill worthily whatever station he
may be called to. I will be his teacher in the sciences."
"And I will interest him and our daughter in music and drawing,"
said the queen.
"And you will allow me to teach my niece to embroider an altar-
cover," said Madame Elizabeth.
"And in the evening," said Marie Antoinette, nodding playfully to
Princess Lamballe, "in the evening we will read comedies, that the
children may learn of our Lamballe the art of declamation. We will
seek to forget the past, and turn our thoughts only to the present,
whatever it may be. You see that these four days that we have spent
here in the Temple have been good schoolmasters for me, and have
made me patient, and--but what is that?" exclaimed the queen; "did
you not hear steps before the door? It must be something unusual,
for it is not yet so late as the officials are accustomed to come.
Where are the children?"
And, in the anxiety of her motherly love, the queen hastened up the
little staircase which led to the second story of the Temple, where
was the chamber of the dauphin, together with the general sitting-
room.
Louis Charles sprang forward to meet his mother, and asked her
whether she had come to fulfil her promise, and go out with him into
the garden.
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