A flash lightened in the eyes which the queen now directed to
Toulan. "You are a shameless fellow!" she said.
"Hear that," said Simon, "that is what I call abusing you."
"On the contrary, it delights me," cried Toulan, "for you will confess that it would be jolly if she should smoke now, and I tell you, she will smoke."
He advanced some paces into the room, and made his deep bow again.
"He understands manners as well as if he had been a rascally courtier himself," said Simon, laughing. "It is a splendid joke."
The two princesses had arisen at the entrance of Toulan, and laid their sewing-work aside. A ball of white cotton had fallen to the ground from the lap of one of them, and rolled through the room toward Toulan.
He picked it up, and bowed to the princesses. "May I view this little globe," he said, "as a reminder of the favor of the loveliest ladies of France? Oh, yes, I see in your roguish smile that I may, and I thank you," said Toulan, pressing the round ball to his lips, and then putting it into his breast-pocket.
"He plays as well as the fellows do in the theatre," said Simon, laughing.
"Go into our sleeping-room," said Marie Antoinette, turning to the princesses. "It is enough for me to have to bear these indignities— go, my son, accompany your aunt."
The dauphin stood up, pressed a kiss upon the hand of his mother, and followed the two princesses, who had gone into the adjoining apartment.