The others acquiesced with alacrity. Their problem was too important to trust to forgotten history for solution. At this moment Richelieu, with serious intent, took snuff, raising the cover of his box in so significant a manner that it was impossible that all should not perceive its miniature to have been removed, leaving the tarnished gold alone visible under the pearl-surrounded glass.
"Ah!" murmured d'Epernon, "what has become of the Duchess?"
"I shall present the picture, as a mark of my high esteem," said Richelieu, "to M. d'Agenois."
There was a general smile. Then de Gêvres remarked, slowly: "I will purchase that miniature of you for my own use, du Plessis."
"What! Have you not one of her?" cried de Bernis.
De Gêvres pulled out his own box and handed it to the abbé. In it was an exquisitely painted portrait of Marie Anne de Nesle, done just before she was created Duchesse de Châteauroux.
"What, then, would you do with another?"
"I should present it, in a few weeks' time, to the King."
"Diable! You are not stupid enough to believe that she is to be reinstated?"
"I am sufficiently stupid—to believe exactly that."