‘You know well enough.’

‘Not in the very least.’

‘Oh! yes, indeed.’

‘Not at all.’

‘All the Court knows that.’

‘I am not of the Court.’

‘You are behaving like a child. I tell you that it’s known.’

‘That may be, madame, but I do not know it.’

‘You know, all the same, that yesterday a page fell from his horse at the gate of Trianon. Were you not there, by good luck?’

‘Yes, madame.’

‘Didn’t you help him to get up?’

‘Yes, madame.’

‘And didn’t you go into the Château?’

‘Undoubtedly.’

‘And didn’t somebody give you a paper?’

‘Yes, madame.’

‘And didn’t you carry it to the king?’

‘Certainly.’

‘The king was not at Trianon, he was hunting: the marquise was alone, isn’t that so?’

‘Yes, madame.’

‘She had just awakened: she was hardly dressed, except, the story goes, in a big dressing-gown.’

‘People who can’t be stopped from speaking say whatever comes into their heads.’

‘Very good, but it seems that between her head and yours a look passed that didn’t displease her.’

‘What do you mean by that, madame?’

‘That you did not displease her.’

‘I know nothing of that and I would be in despair if an act of kindness so sweet and so rare, which I did not expect, and which has touched me to the bottom of my heart, could become the cause of any scandal.’

‘You take fire very quickly, chevalier; one would think that you were going to challenge the whole Court: you’ll never succeed in killing so many people!’