"Who is Leonard?"
"What!" interrupted the Countess d'Artois, "your majesty does not know who Leonard is—Leonard the queen's hair dresser—Leonard the autocrat of fashion? He it is who imagined our lovely sister's coiffure, and certainly these feathers are superb!"
"Beautiful indeed!" cried the Countess de Provence, with an appearance of ecstasy.
"Are these the costly feathers which I heard your majesty admiring in the hat of the Duke de Lauzun?" asked the Count de Provence, pointedly.
"That is a curious question," remarked the king. "How should the feathers of the Duke de Lauzun be transported to the head of the queen?"
"Sire, I was by, when De Guemenee on the part of De Lauzun, requested the queen's acceptance of the feathers."
"And the queen?" said Louis, with irritation.
"I accepted the gift, sire," replied Marie Antoinette, calmly. "The offer was not altogether in accordance with court-etiquette, but no disrespect was intended, and I could not inflict upon Monsieur de Lauzun the humiliation of a refusal. The Count de Provence, however, can spare himself further anxiety in the matter, as the feathers that I wear to-day are those which were lately presented to me by my sister, the Queen of Naples."
"Indeed!" exclaimed the emperor, "I was not aware that Caroline gave presents, although I know that she frequently accepts them from her courtiers."
"The etiquette at Naples differs then from that of Paris," remarked the king. "No subject has the right to offer a gift to the Queen of France."