“This is where everyone waited for the king to pass on his way to chapel,” Roland remarked.

“I’ve read that the court etiquette was pretty stifling,” Hadley said.

“It was. But I think the women had the worst of it,” Roland told him. “Somehow a fashion evolved where the women were supposed to take tiny steps very quickly—you couldn’t see it of course, under their long dresses—so that it seemed as if they were floating.” He turned to Marie. “What would you say to that, mademoiselle?”

A mischievous glint came into Marie’s demure eyes.

“Do you mean like this, monsieur?”

And then, to the astonishment of the four watching men, she set off up the Hall of Mirrors. Her dress was long enough so that one could not see her feet. And the effect was astonishing. It was, indeed, as if she were floating away up the gallery. With the pale light coming in through the windows, her floating form passed like a ghost from mirror to mirror so that one could almost have imagined she were passing into some other age until, turning some hundred feet away, she glided back to them and to the present.

Finally, when she stopped the gentlemen burst into a little round of applause.

“Where did you learn that?” asked Marc in amazement.

“I had a dancing teacher who could do it. She showed me how.”

“Formidable!” cried Roland enthusiastically. “More than that. Exquisite. You must have been at the court in another life.”

“A remarkable performance,” said Fox. “Wonderful.”

“It’s quite tiring,” said Marie with a laugh. “I’m glad I don’t have to do it every day.”

They moved into the Queen’s Apartment. Redecorated several times in the eighteenth century, these had a lighter air.

“Your family were at Versailles, Monsieur de Cygne?” Marie asked.

“Yes. In fact, it’s rather a romantic tale. Back in the days of Louis XIV, my family almost came to an end. There was just one de Cygne left. He was getting old, and he had no heir. But then, here at Versailles, he met a young woman, of the D’Artagnan family. And despite the great difference in age, they fell in love and married.”

“D’Artagnan like in The Three Musketeers?”

“Exactly so. Dumas used the name in his novel, but it was based on a real family.”

“And they were happy?”

“Very happy, I believe. They had a son.” He smiled. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

“I think that’s charming,” said Marie.

As he guided them out of the Queen’s Apartment, Roland announced that he would show them the chapel, which lay across the courtyard. As they walked across the courtyard, Marie turned to him.

“I was interested by the story you just told us,” she said quietly. “I always supposed it would be very difficult to have a happy marriage when there is a great difference between the husband and wife.”