“He fears that I should reproach him.”
“Oh, no; it is not that that makes him fly.”
“It is his conscience, then.”
“Not even that, sister.”
“What then?”
“I will tell you. He had just heard that M. de Suffren, our glorious commander, will arrive this evening; and as the news is important, he wishes to leave you in ignorance of it.”
“But is the Minister of Marine ignorant of this arrival?”
“Ah, mon Dieu, sister, have you not learned enough of ministers, during the fourteen years you have passed here, as dauphiness and queen, to know that they are always ignorant of precisely what they ought to know? However, I have told him about this, and he is deeply grateful.”
“I should think so,” said the queen.
“Yes, and I have need of his gratitude, for I want a loan.”