“Madame,” replied the cardinal, with a sigh, “unfortunately it is not true. I did not persevere in my idea, for I believed the necklace was in your own hands; I never conspired with Madame de la Motte about it, and I have it no more than you say you or the jewelers have it.”
“Impossible! you have not got it?”
“No, madame.”
“Is it not you who hide it?”
“No, madame.”
“You do not know what has become of it?”
“No, madame.”
“But, then, how do you explain its disappearance?”
“I do not pretend to explain it, madame; and, moreover, it is not the first time that I have had to complain that your majesty did not understand me.”
“How, sir?”