Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/50

38 "That is a magnificent ornament in your hair," observed the King.

"You think so, Sire? Strange Your Majesty does not recognise it? "

"Recognise it? I recognise it?"

"Of course, for was it not Your Majesty who ordered them to bring it to my rooms."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Yet the thing lies in a nutshell. Yesterday a jeweller came to the Palace with this ornament of fleurs-de-lis and surmounted with the crown of France, which Your Majesty had commissioned. Since the day God took the Queen from us, I alone, he supposed, had the right to wear such a jewel. So he offered it to me, after your orders and no doubt according to your intentions."

The King reddened, but said nothing.

"More storms brewing," he thought to himself. " The Countess might surely have avoided giving fresh cause for trouble with this silly Marquise affair""Shall you be at the cards this evening, Madame? " he added aloud.

"If Your Majesty so commands."

"Command you, my daughter! Nay, I ask you to come, it will give me pleasure."

The Dauphine bowed coldly. The King saw she did not mean to unbend; so he left her, saying he had to attend a council.

"My children do not love me," he said to the Due d'Ayen, who had been by his side all along.

"The King is mistaken," the latter replied. " I can assure Your Majesty you are at least as much beloved by your august children as you love them yourself."

Louis XV. understood the double entendre', but showed no sign of vexation. Such was his established custom. Otherwise he would have to banish the Due d'Ayen ten times a day, and since the grief and annoyance Monsieur de Chauvelin's absence had caused him, he realized more than ever how indispensable the society of his favourite courtiers was to him.

"Pooh!" he would say, "they may tickle me as much as they please, my hide is tough enough. It will last out m^y time; my successor must do as he can."

Strange such apathy and indifference,—for which the unhappy Louis XVI. was to pay the fatal penalty. 

CHAPTER X

AT THE KING'S CARD-TABLE

HE King was determined to take the Countess severely to task and for this purpose made his way to that lady's apartments. He was received with the blackest of looks, which he felt portended a storm of anger ready to burst out at a moment's notice.

Louis XV. was a weak man. He dreaded scenes of recrimination, whether with his daughters, his grandsons, his daughters-in-law, or his mistress; nevertheless, as was inevitable in the case of one standing between a mistress on the one hand and a family on the other, he was continually laying himself open to these unpleasantnesses.

On this occasion he was anxious to prepare for the coming struggle by providing himself with an ally. So after casting one glance at the Countess to consult the barometer of her mood, whether fair or foul, he looked about him and demanded, "Where is Chauvelin?"

"Monsieur de Chauvelin, Sire!" exclaimed the Countess.

"Yes, Monsieur de Chauvelin."

"Now I really do think, and you must know it better than anybody, that I am not the person to ask for news of Monsieur de Chauvelin, Sire."

"And why, pray?"

"Why! because he is not one of my friends; and that being the case, it is plain you should look for him anywhere but here in my rooms."

"But I told him to wait for me here."

"Well, I suppose he has thought it judicious not to obey the King's orders, . . . and upon my word! that is better than coming here, as he did the last time, to insult me."

"Come, come, I want you to make it up and live in peace."

"With Monsieur de Chauvelin?"

"With everybody, egad!'"

Then turning to the Countess's sister, who was making a pretence of arranging a row of china ornaments on a console-table,

"Chon, my girl, come here," he called,—and when she had obeyed, "Be so good, my dear, as to tell them to send for Monsieur de Chauvelin at once."

Chon bowed and left the room to carry 