“Confess that the queen refuses to see me.”
“I do not say so, monseigneur.”
“She wishes to keep me away lest I should rouse the suspicions of some other lover.”
“Ah, monseigneur!” cried Jeanne in a tone which gave him liberty to suspect anything.
“Listen,” continued he; “the last time I saw her, I thought I heard steps in the wood——”
“Folly!”
“And I suspect——”
“Say no more, monseigneur. It is an insult to the queen; besides, even if it were true that she fears the surveillance of another lover, why should you reproach her with a past which she has sacrificed to you?”
“But if this past be again a present, and about to be a future?”
“Fie, monseigneur, your suspicions are offensive both to the queen and to me.”