“Yes, my lord; would you like to look at it as you return to take your cloak?
“I should, for I like to look at autographs.”
“Well, then, this one is of the most unquestionable authenticity; there is only one erasure.”
“Ah, ah! an erasure; and in what respect?”
“With respect to a figure. At first there was written: ‘To be boarded at fifty francs.’”
“As princes of the blood, in fact?”
“But the cardinal must have seen his mistake, you understand; for he canceled the zero, and has added a one before the five. But, by the by——”
“What?”
“You do not speak of the resemblance.”
“I do not speak of it, dear M. de Baisemeaux, for a very simple reason—because it does not exist.”