Lotte

Lotte, Madame’s daughter and a young woman addressed as Mademoiselle, is characterized through a sequence of intimate gestures at court. She notices distress, offers support without demanding explanation, and turns access to clothing and private rooms into practical care. Her clearest appearances place her beside her mother and Marie-Josèphe de la Croix, where family affection and friendship emerge within the formal, watchful world of the royal household.

Identity and Court Position

Lotte is identified in the narrative as Madame’s daughter and is also called Mademoiselle. The scenes that define her show her moving within her mother’s household, among ladies-in-waiting, attendants, and the elaborate clothes expected at court. She is not presented through a political office or a sustained account of her past; instead, the reader encounters her in the relationships she maintains and the immediate choices she makes for people in distress.

Her place in this household is visible in its material details. When Marie-Josèphe is brought to Madame’s apartments under guard, Lotte has already dressed for the occasion in ecru satin studded with topazes, while Haleed is finishing her tall, ruffled, beribboned fontanges. The scene makes court appearance part of the pressure surrounding the women: even as Marie-Josèphe arrives in a muddy dress, preparations continue for a formal dinner in the King’s presence. Lotte’s later intervention works within that setting, using the wardrobe and the resources of the household to help her friend meet its demands.

Relationship with Madame

Lotte’s care for her mother becomes especially clear when Madame watches the King and is overcome by emotion. Madame whispers that he looks young again, as brilliant and fair as he was in youth; her voice quavers and her eyes fill with tears. This reaction unsettles the familiar image of Madame as someone who mocks court ladies for acting younger than their age and jokes at her own refusal to struggle against aging. Lotte responds physically, taking her mother’s arm. When Marie-Josèphe moves to support Madame beneath the elbow, Lotte asks that they take her to her room.

Madame refuses to leave because she believes the King would not like it. She straightens herself, trembling, to preserve the appearance of her usual composure. Lotte’s offer cannot overrule her mother’s decision, but it gives the moment a private counterpoint to the public ceremony: she recognizes that Madame needs help and proposes a way to withdraw. Her concern is expressed as an offer rather than a confrontation, while Madame’s choice shows how strongly court expectations continue to govern even a personal moment of grief or tenderness.

Relationship with Marie-Josèphe

Lotte’s friendship with Marie-Josèphe is expressed through close, unceremonious gestures. After guards take Lucien and Yves away and forbid Marie-Josèphe to speak with either man, Marie-Josèphe is escorted to Madame’s apartments. There, while the household is dressing for court, Haleed drops the ribbons she is holding and embraces Marie-Josèphe without a word. Lotte follows. Marie-Josèphe clings to her sister and her friend. The sequence presents Lotte not as a distant observer of the crisis but as one of the people to whom Marie-Josèphe turns for comfort.

The dogs in the room also react to Marie-Josèphe, sniffing at her petticoat and barking after scenting Sherzad. Their commotion contrasts with the wordless embrace: the room contains signs of the trouble Marie-Josèphe carries with her, but Lotte’s response is physical solidarity rather than questioning. The scene does not specify what Lotte knows or believes about the crisis. What it does establish is that she stays close when Marie-Josèphe is isolated from Lucien and Yves.

That attentiveness recurs when Marie-Josèphe begins to cry. Lotte whispers, “Marie-Josèphe, dear heart, don’t cry,” an intimate appeal that acknowledges her friend’s pain without trying to explain it away. The tenderness of the address stands against the guards’ prohibition on speech and the broader court’s formal demands. Lotte cannot remove those constraints, but she can offer a private voice of affection within them.

Practical Care and the Gown

Madame notices that Marie-Josèphe cannot dine before the King in a muddy dress. Lotte answers her mother’s teasing by leading Marie-Josèphe to a wardrobe and opening it. Inside is a gown of silver satin and lace, its bodice paved with moonstones. The striking garment is more than a change of clothes in the scene: it is a concrete means of helping Marie-Josèphe return to the company from which her crisis has separated her.

Marie-Josèphe protests that she cannot accept it. Lotte explains that Lucien de Chrétien has sent the gown with his compliments. Marie-Josèphe privately reflects that she has destroyed him, yet he continues to treat her with kindness. Lotte does not challenge this fear or speak for Lucien; she gives the gift, hugs and kisses Marie-Josèphe, and squeezes her hands hopefully before leaving her alone with Haleed. Her actions link practical assistance to emotional reassurance, while leaving the meaning of Lucien’s gesture—and Marie-Josèphe’s distress—unresolved.

Narrative Role

Lotte’s characterization depends on repeated acts of noticing and care rather than on a declared account of her opinions. She supports Madame when the King’s youth breaks through her usual composure, and she supports Marie-Josèphe when guards, separation, and guilt have left her in need of comfort. In both relationships she acts through touch, an offer, a whispered reassurance, or a useful object. These actions are modest in scale, but they give the scenes a human intimacy that court ceremony cannot supply.

The contrast is especially marked in the dressing-room episode. The household’s preparations continue with satin, topazes, ribbons, perfumes, and expectations about appearing before the King; alongside them, Lotte embraces her friend and provides a gown that can be worn into that public world. Her care does not undo the restrictions or dangers surrounding Marie-Josèphe, and the evidence gives no resolution to the conflict between Marie-Josèphe and Lucien. It does, however, establish Lotte as a loyal presence whose affection persists when the people she loves are shaken.