The voice of M. d’Artois interrupted this scene, saying loudly, “Ah, Provence! you come too late! you have missed a fine sight, the reception of M. de Suffren. Really, it was one that a Frenchman can never forget. How the devil did it happen that you were not here—you who are generally the punctual man par excellence?”
M. de Provence bit his lips with vexation, and whispered to M. de Favras, his captain of the guards, “How does it come to pass that he is here?”
“Ah! monseigneur, I have been asking myself that question for the last hour, and have not yet found an answer.”
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ONE HUNDRED LOUIS OF THE QUEEN.
Now we have introduced the principal characters of this history to our readers, and have taken them both into the “petite maison” of the Comte d’Artois and into the king’s palace at Versailles, we will return to that house in the Rue St. Claude where we saw the queen enter incognito with Mademoiselle Andrée de Taverney.
We left Madame de la Motte counting over and delighted with her fifty double louis; next to the pleasure of having them, she knew no greater than that of displaying them, and having no one else, she called Dame Clotilde, who was still in the ante-chamber.
When she entered, “Come and look here!” said her mistress.
“Oh, madame!” cried the old woman, clasping her hands in astonishment.
“You were uneasy about your wages,” said the countess.
“Oh, madame! I never said that; I only asked madame if she could pay me, as I had received nothing for three months.”