"Ten minutes, monseigneur," replied the man in the cloak; "in two hours your highness will not have even broached the subject of your visit. Oh! the Abbess de Chelles is a clever woman!"
So saying, he stretched himself out in an easy chair, which he had drawn near the fire, and rested his thin legs on the fender.
"Yes, yes," replied he who had been addressed as "your highness;" "I know, and if I could forget it, you take care to remind me of it often enough. Why did you bring me here to-day through all this wind and snow?"
"Because you would not come yesterday, monseigneur."
"Yesterday, it was impossible; I had an appointment with Lord Stair at five o'clock."
"In a house in the Rue des Bons Enfants. My lord does not live any longer, then, at the English embassy?"
"Abbe, I had forbidden you to follow me."
"Monseigneur, it is my duty to disobey you."
"Well, then, disobey; but let me tell stories at my pleasure, without your having the impertinence to show me that you know it, just for the sake of proving the efficiency of your police."
"Monseigneur may rest easy in future—I will believe anything!"