"Yes, monsieur, for I desired to be enlightened upon certain points relative to yourself, which cause us some perplexity."
"In that case," rejoined Cauvignac, with a bow, "I am here, madame, ready to requite the honor your Highness is pleased to confer upon me."
He bowed with the most graceful air he could muster, but it was clearly lacking in ease and naturalness.
"That you may do very speedily," said the princess, "if your answers are as definite as our questions."
"Allow me to remind your Highness," said Cauvignac, "that, as the question is always prepared beforehand, and the response never, it is more difficult to respond than to question."
"Oh! our questions will be so clear and precise," said the princess, "that you will be spared any necessity for reflecting upon them. Your name?"
"Ah! madame, there you are! there is a most embarrassing question, first of all."
"How so?"
"It often happens that one has two names, the name one has received from his family, and the name one has received from himself. Take my own case as an example: I thought that I had sufficient reason for laying aside my first name in favor of another less widely known; which of the two names do you require me to give you?"
"That under which you presented yourself at Chantilly, that under which you agreed to raise a company in my interest, that under which you did raise it, and that under which you sold yourself to Monsieur de Mazarin."