“I must first explain to you—”
“Do so unhesitatingly.”
“Well, then, your majesty can confer the greatest, the most ineffable pleasure upon me.”
“What is it?” said the queen, a little distant in her manner, from an uneasiness of feeling produced by this remark. “But do not forget, my good Chevreuse, that I am quite as much under my son’s influence as I was formerly under my husband’s.”
“I will not be too hard, madame.”
“Call me as you used to do; it will be a sweet echo of our happy youth.”
“Well, then, my dear mistress, my darling Anne—”
“Do you know Spanish, still?”
“Yes.”
“Ask me in Spanish, then.”