The queen looked all around, and then said, “I see nothing but happy and friendly faces.”
“Rather, then, whom do you not see?”
“Oh! I understand; I wonder if he is always going to run away from me.”
“Oh no! only this is a good joke; M. de Provence has gone to wait at the barrier for M. de Suffren.”
“Well, I do not see why you laugh at that; he has been the most cunning, after all, and will be the first to receive and pay his compliments to this gentleman.”
“Come, dear sister,” replied the young prince, laughing, “you have a very mean opinion of our diplomacy. M. de Provence has gone to meet him at Fontainebleau; but we have sent some one to meet him at Villejuif, so that my brother will wait by himself at Fontainebleau, while our messenger will conduct M. de Suffren straight to Versailles, without passing through Paris at all.”
“That is excellently imagined.”
“It is not bad, I flatter myself; but it is your turn to play.”
The king had noticed that M. d’Artois was making the queen laugh, and guessing what it was about, gave them a significant glance, to show that he shared their amusement.
The saloon where they played was full of persons of the highest rank—M. de Condé, M. de Penthièvre, M. de Tremouille, etc. The news of the arrival of M. de Suffren had, as we have said, been kept quiet, but there had been a kind of vague rumor that some one was expected, and all were somewhat preoccupied and watchful. Even the king, who was in the habit of playing six-franc pieces in order to moderate the play of the court, played gold without thinking of it.