TOO GOOD A TEACHER.
Fatigued by the ceremonies of the dauphin's nuptials, and particularly
by the dinner, which was too stately, the king retired at nine o'clock
and dismissed all attendants except Duke Vauguyon, tutor of the royal
children. As he was losing his best pupil by the marriage, having
only his two brothers to teach, and as it is the custom to reward
a preceptor when education of a charge is complete, he expected a
recompense.
He had been sobbing, and now he slipped out a pockethandkerchief and
began to weep.
"Come, my poor Vauguyon," said the king, pointing to a foot-stool in
the light, while he would be in the shade, "pray be seated, without any
to-do."
The duke sighed.
"The education is over, and you have turned out in the prince royal the
best educated prince in Europe."
"I believe he is."
"Good at history, and geography, and at wood-turning----"
"The praise for that goes to another, sire."
"And at setting timepieces in order. Before he handled them, my clocks
told the time one after another like wheels of a coach; but he has put
them right. In short, the heir to the crown will, I believe, be a good
king, a good manager, and a good father of family. I suppose he will be
a good father?" he insisted.
"Why, your majesty," said Vauguyon simply, "I consider that as the
dauphin has all the germs of good in his bosom, those that constitute
that are in the cluster."
"Come, come, my lord," said the sovereign, "let us speak plainly. As
you know the dauphin thoroughly, you must know all about his tastes and
his passions----"
"Pardon me, sire, but I have extirpated all his passions."
"Confound it all! this is just what I feared!" exclaimed Louis XV.,
with an energy which made the hearer's wig stand its hairs on end.
"Sire, the Duke of Berri has lived under your august roof with the
innocence of the studious youth."
"But the youth is now a married man."
"Sire, as the guide of----"
"Yes, well, I see that you must guide him to the very last."
"Please your majesty."
"This is the way of it. You will go to the dauphin, who is now
receiving the final compliments of the gentlemen as the dauphiness
is receiving those of the ladies. Get a candle and take your pupil
aside. Show him the nuptial chamber which is at the end of a corridor
filled with pictures which I have selected as a complete course of the
instruction which your lordship omitted----"
"Ah," said the duke, starting at the smile of his master, which would
have appeared cynical on any mouth but his, the wittiest in the kingdom.
"At the end of the new corridor, I say, of which here is the key."
Vauguyon took it trembling.
"You will shake your pupil's hand, put the candle into it, wish him
good-night, and tell him that it will take twenty minutes to reach the
bedroom door, giving a minute to each painting."
"I--I understand."
"That is a good thing."
"Your majesty is good enough to excuse me----"
"I suppose I shall have to, but you were making this end prettily for
my family!"
From the window the king could see the candle which passed from the
hands of Vauguyon into that of his guileless pupil, go the way up the
new gallery, and flicker out.
"I gave him twenty minutes--I myself found five long enough," muttered
the king, "Alas, will they say of the dauphin as of the second Racine:
'He is the nephew of his grandfather.'"