"Please your majesty."
"This is the way of it. You will go to the dauphin, who is now receiving the final compliments of the gentlemen as the dauphiness is receiving those of the ladies. Get a candle and take your pupil aside. Show him the nuptial chamber which is at the end of a corridor filled with pictures which I have selected as a complete course of the instruction which your lordship omitted——"
"Ah," said the duke, starting at the smile of his master, which would have appeared cynical on any mouth but his, the wittiest in the kingdom.
"At the end of the new corridor, I say, of which here is the key."
Vauguyon took it trembling.
"You will shake your pupil's hand, put the candle into it, wish him good-night, and tell him that it will take twenty minutes to reach the bedroom door, giving a minute to each painting."
"I—I understand."
"That is a good thing."
"Your majesty is good enough to excuse me——"
"I suppose I shall have to, but you were making this end prettily for my family!"