“Completely, your majesty.”
“You would not speak so if you knew what he has done against me; but as you have so great a friendship for him, I will not attack him again before you. You have not, then, forgotten the diamonds?”
“Oh, madame, I have thought of them night and day. They will look so well on your majesty.”
“What do you mean? They are sold to the Portuguese ambassador.”
Jeanne shook her head.
“Not sold!” cried the queen.
“Yes, madame, but to M. de Rohan.”
“Oh,” said the queen, becoming suddenly cold again.
“Oh! your majesty,” cried Jeanne; “do not be ungenerous towards him. It was the impulse of a generous heart that your majesty should understand and sympathize with. When he heard my account he cried,—‘What! the queen refuse herself such a thing, and perhaps see it one day worn by one of her subjects!’ And when I told him that it was bought for the Queen of Portugal, he was more indignant than ever. He cried, ‘It is no longer a simple question of pleasure for the queen, but of the dignity of the French crown. I know the spirit of foreign courts; they will laugh at our queen because they happen to have more money to spare: and I will never suffer this.’ And he left me abruptly. An hour after I heard that he had bought the necklace.”
“For 1,500,000 francs?”