“How! she denies it? But I thought you had an acknowledgment from her.”
“She says it is a forged one.”
“Decidedly, you are mad!” cried the cardinal.
“We simply speak the truth.”
“Then she denied it because some one was there.”
“No, monseigneur. And this is not all: not only does the queen deny her own acknowledgment, but she produced a receipt from us, purporting that we had received back the necklace.”
“A receipt from you?”
“Which also is a forgery, M. le Cardinal—you know it.”
“A forgery, and I know it!”
“Assuredly, for you came to confirm what Madame de la Motte had said; and you knew that we had sold the necklace to the queen.”