“What means this rudeness, gentlemen? No one owes you anything here.”
The jewelers, driven to despair, made a half-menacing gesture.
“Are you mad?” asked the cardinal.
“Monseigneur,” replied Bœhmer, with a sigh, “do us justice, and do not compel us to be rude to an illustrious prince.”
“Either you are not mad, in which case my servants shall throw you out of the window; or you are mad, and they shall simply push you out of the door.”
“Monseigneur, we are not mad, but we have been robbed.”
“What is that to me? I am not lieutenant of police.”
“But you have had the necklace in your hands, and in justice——”
“The necklace! is it the necklace that is stolen?”
“Yes, monseigneur.”