"'Sire?'
"'You will apportion on the budget, half to Foreign Affairs, half to the Colonies, the funds Count Bielowsky will need for the reception of the Tuareg delegation. It seems to me that a hundred thousand francs, to begin.... The Count has only to tell you if he is forced to exceed that figure.'
"Clémentine lived on the Rue Boccador, in a little Moorish pavilion that I had bought for her from M. de Lesseps. I found her in bed. When she saw me, she burst into tears.
"'Great fools that we are!' she murmured amidst her sobs, 'what have we done!'
"'Clémentine, tell me!'
"'What have we done, what have we done!' she repeated, and I felt against me, her floods of black hair, her warm cheek which was fragrant with eau de Nanon.
"'What is it? What can it be?'
"'It is....' and she murmured something in my ear.
"'No!' I said, stupefied. 'Are you quite sure?'
"'Am I quite sure!'