Bishop (shocked, with raised hands). Monseigneur!
Monseigneur. I did not understand. I had never heard the word. Therefore, one day I asked Lorrain, the big man-at-arms⸺ (Pauses.)
Bishop. And he told your lordship?
Monseigneur. He told me nothing. He only laughed. So did my father, when my mother charged him.—Aie! how well I remember!
Bishop. But Madame la Duchesse, your mother? She did not laugh?
Monseigneur (simply). Not at all. She was very angry. She said it was a scandal; particularly, with poor Beppo. Do you know why, Bishop? (Confidentially.) Because it seems he was born on the same day, the very same day, as I. Yet, somehow, she was not his mother. That was why she was so angry, I suppose?
Bishop. Very likely. (Pause, while the Doctor, after exchanging glances with the Bishop, resumes his seat by the fire).
Monseigneur. Bishop!
Bishop. Monseigneur?
Monseigneur. Do you think that if I gave my brother Beppo money—a great deal of money—he would die instead of me? Do you think the good God would mind?