Chevalier de Lorraine and Monsieur

Chevalier de Lorraine and Monsieur are presented as intimate companions whose affection is visible even within the formal spectacle of court life. Their relationship emerges not through a declared account of its history but through repeated gestures: dancing together, walking arm in arm, and attending to one another over food. Those gestures make closeness legible to Marie-Josèphe de la Croix, while her anxious attention to etiquette shows the risks of displaying it in the King’s presence.

A relationship made visible

At a gathering in the Salon of Mars, Chevalier de Lorraine and Monsieur are the only couple dancing. As M. Coupillet conducts a saraband, they come together, pivot, and part according to the measured form of the dance. Their movements belong to a courtly performance, but the scene also gives their intimacy its own audience: Marie-Josèphe de la Croix and Yves de la Croix notice them. Monsieur gazes up at his friend, and Chevalier de Lorraine bends to kiss him. When Chevalier de Lorraine’s gaze catches Marie-Josèphe’s, he smiles and continues dancing.

The kiss is neither hidden nor separated from the court’s social world. The pair dance alone, but not in private; their affection is displayed within a palace salon, before observers who can recognize what is happening. The dance’s prescribed coming together and parting supplies a formal frame for the more personal contact between them. Chevalier de Lorraine’s glance and smile further make Marie-Josèphe a witness, though the text does not establish that he explains or names the relationship to her.

Familiarity in the salons

Later, Chevalier de Lorraine and Monsieur enter a salon arm in arm. Chevalier de Lorraine guides his companion toward Marie-Josèphe and Yves, who greet them. Marie-Josèphe curtsies; Yves gives a stiff, restrained bow. Their greeting places the couple within ordinary courtly sociability, while the linked arms make their closeness visible in that setting too. Chevalier de Lorraine smiles at Marie-Josèphe as if they share a romantic secret, a look that draws her into the scene as an observer without making her a participant in the pair’s intimacy.

The treatment they receive also shows how rank organizes the room around them. Footmen bring Monsieur a gold plate and Chevalier de Lorraine a silver one, and serve them according to their respective tastes: pastries and sweets for Monsieur, rare beef for Chevalier de Lorraine. The distinction between the plates preserves their separate positions even as they arrive together. Chevalier de Lorraine eats the beef with his hands, while Monsieur offers him a piece of cream-covered pastry. Their ease with one another is set against the carefully managed service surrounding them.

Affection and courtly risk

Chevalier de Lorraine refuses the pastry for the moment, explaining that it does not go with the seasoning. He sets down the bone and brushes a fleck of sugar from Monsieur’s upper lip. The gesture is practical and tender at once: Monsieur has offered food, and Chevalier de Lorraine responds by tending to his face. Marie-Josèphe notices the contrast between this unselfconscious care and the rigid standards of conduct around them.

She is especially struck by Chevalier de Lorraine calling Monsieur “Philippe.” To her, using his given name is daring because Chevalier de Lorraine does not address him so familiarly in Madame’s presence; she cannot imagine such a breach of etiquette while the King is within earshot. Her uncertainty matters. The passage presents their intimacy through actions that are plainly affectionate, but leaves Marie-Josèphe to puzzle over how far that intimacy can be openly acknowledged under the court’s rules.

Those rules have material force. Marie-Josèphe imagines the King’s face turning cold and recognizes that a single word of censure could ruin a courtier’s place. She even wonders what Lucien de Barenton, Count de Chrétien, would say, given his dedication to the King. The scene does not report that the King reprimands Chevalier de Lorraine or Monsieur; instead, it makes the possibility of royal disapproval part of the tension surrounding their familiarity.

The limits of what is disclosed

The relationship is conveyed through a sequence of public signs rather than through an explanation of its origins, private arrangements, or future. The dance, kiss, linked arms, shared meal, and touch at Monsieur’s lip establish a recurring pattern of closeness; they do not provide a fuller account of the couple’s life beyond these encounters. Marie-Josèphe’s observations likewise combine recognition with uncertainty: she reads the intimacy in their conduct, yet measures it against rules that make even a given name seem consequential.

That combination gives the relationship a distinct place in the novel’s court scenes. Court ceremony does not erase affection, but it makes affection legible as a potential breach of decorum. Chevalier de Lorraine and Monsieur appear together openly, and their gestures carry a warmth that formal ranks and separate plates cannot conceal. At the same time, the King’s authority remains the boundary against which Marie-Josèphe judges their freedom to show it.