"Any one can see that she is thin," muttered the king; "what the deuse made Choiseul pick out the skinny chicken among all the pullets of European courts?"
"Your majesty will please to observe that I acted according to the strict etiquette," said the Duchess of Noailles, "the infraction was on my lord the dauphin's part."
"I take it on myself. So, let us leave the children to themselves," said the monarch.
The princess seized the lady's arm with more terror than before.
"Oh, don't go away!" she faltered; "I shall die of shame."
"Sire, the dauphiness begs to be allowed to go to rest without any state," said Lady Noailles.
"The deuce—and does 'Lady Etiquette' herself crave that?"
"Look at the archduchess——"
In fact, Marie Antoinette, standing up, pale and with her rigid arm sustaining her by a chair, resembled a statue of fright, but for the slight chattering of her teeth, and the cold perspiration bedewing her forehead.
"Oh, I should not think of causing the young lady any pain," said Louis XV., as little strict about forms as his father was the other thing. "Let us retire, duchess; besides, the doors have locks."