The Marquis had hardly respectfully saluted Madame Rohan-Soubise, when she turned towards M. de Lugeac, with a gesture of supreme disdain, and asked him, "Who is this gentleman?"
The count, very much embarrassed, hesitated to answer, when the Marquis sharply said, "M. de Létorière absolves M. de Lugeac from being responsible for him to Madame de Rohan-Soubise."
"It was at my request, madame, that M. the Marquis of Létorière has been kind enough to come here," said the princess Julie, in a firm and decided voice.
"At your request? . . . yours . . . Julie?" cried Madame Rohan-Soubise, at the height of astonishment. "'Tis impossible!"
"However unknown I may unhappily be to Madame de Rohan-Soubise, I dare to hope that she will understand that the formal orders of Mlle. de Soissons have been necessary to bring me to the Chateau Soubise—an honor which, until now, I have at least had the modesty or the good taste never to aspire to," replied the Marquis, in a tone of marked irony.
"Princess Julie . . . explain yourself . . . this has already continued too long!" cried Madame de Rohan-Soubise, imperiously.
The count and the abbé made a movement to retire, but Mlle. de Soissons said to them:
"Have the goodness to remain, gentlemen, that you may be witnesses to what I wish to say to madame."
The two gentlemen bowed respectfully. Mlle. de Soissons then addressed her aunt: "I have begged M. de Létorière to come here, madame, that I might tell him before you, and you before him, my irrevocable intentions. I am an orphan, and free in all my actions when they are not unworthy of my birth; but you are my relative, madame, and I know what is due to you, and I cannot better prove my respect than in imparting to you a resolution on which depends my destiny." . . .
With the exception of the Marquis, the actors in this strange scene were lost in astonishment. Madame de Rohan-Soubise, stupefied at the language of the princess Julie, could not believe what she heard.