He left her and approached the noisy chorus. To the Duchess, who asked him for another cocktail, he gently remarked:
“Don’t bother me.”
Then he sat down beside Joseph Lacrisse who was meditating apart, and spoke to him for some time in a low voice. His manner was serious and resolute.
“It’s true enough,” he said to the secretary of the Committee of Young Royalists. “We must overthrow the Republic and save France. And to do that we need money. My mother is of the same opinion. She is prepared to pay fifty thousand francs to the King’s account for expenses of propaganda.”
Joseph Lacrisse thanked him in the King’s name.
“Monseigneur,” he said, “will be happy to learn that your mother adds her patriotic offering to that of the three French ladies who displayed such chivalrous generosity. You may be sure that he will express his gratitude in a letter written by his own hand.”
“It’s not worth speaking of,” said young Bonmont.
And after a short silence he added:
“When you see the Brécés and the Courtrais, my dear Lacrisse, you might tell them to come to our little fête.”