“Are you mad, Chevalier d’Herblay?”
“I! do you think so?”
“What do you mean, then? Do you not know that a fete at Vaux, one of the very simplest possible character, would cost four or five millions?”
“I do not speak of a fete of the very simplest possible character, my dear superintendent.”
“But, since the fete is to be given to the king,” replied Fouquet, who misunderstood Aramis’s idea, “it cannot be simple.”
“Just so: it ought to be on a scale of the most unbounded magnificence.”
“In that case, I shall have to spend ten or twelve millions.”
“You shall spend twenty, if you require it,” said Aramis, in a perfectly calm voice.
“Where shall I get them?” exclaimed Fouquet.
“That is my affair, monsieur le surintendant; and do not be uneasy for a moment about it. The money shall be placed at once at your disposal, the moment you have arranged the plans of your fete.”