Lauzun now rises, and strides up and down the cabinet. He strolls into the adjoining gallery, eying the precious ornaments with which the tables are covered. He takes the most valuable articles in his hands and carefully examines them, holding them up against the light. Then he returns, stands opposite Mademoiselle, and examines her features with a stare of cynical scrutiny. She grows crimson under this insolent inspection, but says nothing.
"You would have done much better to have given me the money you have squandered here. I have suffered great misery."
"I have given you too much already, Monsieur de Lauzun," replies Mademoiselle, in an unsteady voice, for his heartless greed smote her to the very soul.
"I fear you are horribly cheated," adds Lauzun, not noticing her reply. Again he walks up and down the room. "I could manage matters much better for you. Will you make me your treasurer?"
He speaks eagerly, and there is a hungry gleam in his eye that bodes ill for Mademoiselle's revenues.
"No, I will not," answers Mademoiselle, firmly. "If you want to know, I have paid for this place forty thousand livres. I sold my string of pearls to purchase it."
"Oh! you have sold your string of pearls without consulting me?" interrupts Lauzun with an offended air. "What waste! What folly!"
He stops in his pacing up and down the room, and fixes his eyes upon her in another silent scrutiny.
"I see you still wear coloured ribbons in your hair. Surely, at your age, this is ridiculous."
"The Queen does the same."