"I suppose so."
"If, therefore, you begin a party warfare against M. Fouquet, he will reply in the same way; for he, too, is at perfect liberty to do so, is he not?"
"Oh! certainly."
"And as he is on good terms with Spain, he will make use of that friendship as a weapon of attack."
"You mean, that he will be on good terms with the general of the order of the Jesuits, my dear Aramis."
"That may be the case, duchesse."
"And that, consequently, the pension I have been receiving from the order will be stopped."
"I am greatly afraid it might be."
"Well; I must contrive to console myself in the best way I can; for after Richelieu, after the Frondes, after exile, what is there left for Madame de Chevreuse to be afraid of?"
"The pension, you are aware, is forty-eight thousand francs."