Grammont."
"Sire, my sister is not well, and she begs me to offer her most humble respects," said Choiseul, only succeeding in flimsy indifference.
"That is bad for her!" ominously said the sovereign, turning his back on the duke and thus facing Prince Guemenee.
"Have you brought your wife?" he questioned.
"Impossible, your majesty: when I went to bring her, she was sick abed."
"Nothing could be worse," said the king. "Good-evening, marshal," he said to Richelieu, who bowed with the suppleness of a young courtier. "You do not seem to have a touch of the complaint?"
"Sire, I am always in good health when I have the pleasure of beholding your majesty."
"But I do not see your daughter the Countess of Egmont. What is the reason of her
absence?"
"Alas! sire," responded the old duke, assuming the most sorrowful mien, "my poor child is the more indisposed from the mishap depriving her of the happiness of this occasion, but——"