"So you saw her before you went?"
"I had the honor of stating that I had not seen the countess since I promised the Queen not to see her."
"Then she wrote to you? confess it!" cried Marie Antoinette.
"She confided a letter for me to my brother Isidore."
"A letter which you read? what does she say? but she promised me—but let us hear quickly. What does she say in this letter? Speak, see you not that I am on thorns?"
"I cannot repeat what it says as I have not read it."
"You destroyed it unread?" exclaimed she delightedly, "you threw it in the fire? Oh, Charny, if you did that, you are the most true of lovers and I was wrong to scold—for I have lost nothing."
She held out her arms to lure him to his former place, but he stood firm.
"I have not torn it or burnt it," he replied.
"But then, how came you not to read it?" questioned she, sinking back on the chair.