The Queen's Necklace by Alexandre Dumas père (best e books to read .TXT) 📕

more."

"But allow us one moment, madame," said Boehmer.

"Have you ever seen those diamonds?" said the queen to Jeanne.

"No, madame."

"They are beautiful. It is a pity these gentlemen have not brought them."

"Here they are," said Boehmer, opening the case.

"Come, countess, you are a woman, and these will please you."

Jeanne uttered a cry of admiration when she saw them, and said, "They are indeed beautiful."

"1,500,000 francs, which you hold in the palm of your hand," said the queen.

"Monsieur was right," said Jeanne, "when he said that no one was worthy to wear these diamonds but your majesty."

"However, my majesty will not wear them."

"We could not let them leave France without expressing our regret to your majesty. It is a necklace which is now known all over Europe, and we wished to know definitively that your majesty really refused it before we parted with it."

"My refusal has been made public," said the queen, "and has been too much applauded for me to repent of it."

"Oh, madame!" said Boehmer, "if the people found it admirable that your majesty preferred a ship of war to a necklace, the nobility at least would not think it surprising if you bought the necklace after all."

"Do not speak of it any more," said Marie Antoinette, casting at the same time a longing look at the casket.

Jeanne sighed, "Ah, you sigh, countess; in my place you would act differently."

"I do not know, madame."

"Have you looked enough?"

"Oh no! I could look forever."

"Let her look, gentlemen; that takes nothing from the value. Unfortunately, they are still worth 1,500,000 francs."

"Oh," thought Jeanne, "she is regretting it." And she said, "On your neck, madame, they would make all women die with jealousy, were they as beautiful as Cleopatra or Venus." And, approaching, she clasped it round her neck. "Ah, your majesty is beautiful so!"

The queen turned to the mirror. It was really splendid; every one must have admired. Marie Antoinette forgot herself for a time in admiration; then, seized with fear, she tried to take it off.

"It has touched your majesty's neck; it ought not to belong to any one else," said Boehmer.

"Impossible!" said the queen, firmly. "Gentlemen, I have amused myself with these jewels; to do more would be a fault."

"We will return to-morrow," said Boehmer.

"No; I must pay sooner or later; and, besides, doubtless you want your money. You will get it soon."

"Yes, your majesty," said the merchant, a man of business again.

"Take the necklace back," said the queen; "put it away immediately."

"Your majesty forgets that such a thing is equal to money itself."

"And that in a hundred years it will be worth as much as it is now," said Jeanne.

"Give me 1,500,000 francs," said the queen, "and we shall see."

"Oh, if I had them!"

MM. Boehmer and Bossange took as long as possible to put back the necklace, but the queen did not speak.

At last they said, "Your majesty refuses them?"

"Yes, oh yes!" And they quitted the room.

Marie Antoinette remained sitting, looking rather gloomy, and beating with her foot in an impatient manner; at last she said, "Countess, it seems the king will not return; we must defer our supplication till another time."

Jeanne bowed respectfully.

"But I will not forget you," added the queen.

"She is regretting and desiring," thought Jeanne, as she left; "and yet she is a queen."


CHAPTER XL.

TWO AMBITIONS THAT WISH TO PASS FOR TWO LOVES.

When Jeanne returned to her pretty little house in the faubourg, it was still early; so she took a pen and wrote a few rapid lines, enclosed them in a perfumed envelope, and rang the bell. "Take this letter to Monseigneur the Cardinal de Rohan," said she.

In five minutes the man returned.

"Well," said Madame de la Motte, impatiently, "why are you not gone?"

"Just as I left the house, madame, his eminence came to the door. I told him I was about to go to his hotel with a letter from you; he read it, and is now waiting to come in."

"Let him enter," said the countess.

Jeanne had been thinking all the way home of the beautiful necklace, and wishing it was hers. It would be a fortune in itself.

The cardinal entered. He also was full of desires and ambitions, which he wished to hide under the mask of love.

"Ah, dear Jeanne," said he, "you have really become so necessary to me that I have been gloomy all day knowing you to be so far off. But you have returned from Versailles?"

"As you see, monseigneur."

"And content?"

"Enchanted."

"The queen received you, then?"

"I was introduced immediately on my arrival."

"You were fortunate. I suppose, from your triumphant air, that she spoke to you."

"I passed three hours in her majesty's cabinet."

"Three hours! You are really an enchantress whom no one can resist. But perhaps you exaggerate. Three hours!" he repeated; "how many things a clever woman like you might say in three hours!"

"Oh, I assure you, monseigneur, that I did not waste my time."

"I dare say that in the whole three hours you did not once think of me."

"Ungrateful man!"

"Really!" cried the cardinal.

"I did more than think of you; I spoke of you."

"Spoke of me! to whom?" asked the prelate, in a voice from which all his power over himself could not banish some emotion.

"To whom should it be but to the queen?"

"Ah, dear countess, tell me about it. I interest myself so much in all that concerns you, that I should like to hear the most minute details."

Jeanne smiled. She knew what interested the cardinal as well as he did himself. Then she related to him all the circumstances which had so fortunately made her, from a stranger, almost the friend and confidant of the queen.

Scarcely had she finished, when the servant entered to announce supper.

Jeanne invited the cardinal to accompany her.

He gave her his arm, and they went in together.

During supper, the cardinal continued to drink in long draughts of love and hope from the recitals which Jeanne kept making to him from time to time. He remarked also, with surprise, that, instead of making herself sought like a woman that knows that you have need of her, she had thrown off all her former pride, and only seemed anxious to please him. She did the honors of her table as if she had all her life mixed in the highest circles; there was neither awkwardness nor embarrassment.

"Countess," said he at length, "there are two women in you."

"How so?"

"One of yesterday, and another of to-day."

"And which does your excellency prefer?"

"I do not know, but at least the one of this evening is a Circe--a something irresistible."

"And which you will not attempt to resist, I hope, prince as you are."

The cardinal imprinted a long kiss on her hand.


CHAPTER XLI.

FACES UNDER THEIR MASKS.

Two hours had elapsed, and the conversation still continued. The cardinal was now the slave, and Jeanne was triumphant. Two men often deceive each other as they shake hands, a man and a woman as they kiss; but here, each only deceived the other because they wished to be deceived: each had an end to gain, and for that end intimacy was necessary.

The cardinal now did not demonstrate his impatience, but always managed to bring back the conversation to Versailles, and to the honors which awaited the queen's new favorite.

"She is generous," said he, "and spares nothing towards those she loves. She has the rare talent of giving a little to every one, and a great deal to a few."

"You think, then, she is rich?"

"She makes resources with a word or a smile; no minister, except perhaps Turgot, ever refused her anything."

"Well," said Madame de la Motte, "I have seen her poorer than you think."

"What do you mean?"

"Are those rich who are obliged to impose privations on themselves?"

"Privations! What do you mean, dear countess?"

"I will tell you what I saw--I saw the queen suffer. Do you know what a woman's desire is, my dear prince?"

"No, countess; but I should like you to tell me."

"Well, the queen has a desire, which she cannot satisfy."

"For what?"

"For a diamond necklace."

"Oh, I know what you mean--the diamonds of MM. Boehmer and Bossange."

"Precisely."

"That is an old story, countess."

"Old or new, it is a real vexation for a queen not to be able to buy what was intended for a simple favorite. Fifteen more days added to the life of Louis XV., and Jeanne Vaubernier would have had what Marie Antoinette cannot buy."

"My dear countess, you mistake; the queen could have had it, and she refused it; the king offered them to her."

And he recounted the history of the ship of war.

"Well," said she, "after all, what does that prove?"

"That she did not want them, it seems to me."

Jeanne shrugged her shoulders.

"You know women and courts, and believe that? The queen wanted to do a popular act, and she has done it."

"Good!" said the cardinal; "that is how you believe in the royal virtues. Ah, skeptic, St. Thomas was credulous, compared to you!"

"Skeptic or not, I can assure you of one thing--that the queen had no sooner refused it than she earnestly desired to have it."

"You imagine all this, my dear countess; for if the queen has one quality more than another, it is disinterestedness. She does not care for gold or jewels, and likes a simple flower as well as a diamond."

"I do not know that; I only know she wishes for this necklace."

"Prove it, countess."

"It is easy. I saw the necklace, and touched it."

"Where?"

"At Versailles, when the jewelers brought it for the last time to try and tempt the queen."

"And it is beautiful?"

"Marvelous! I, who am a woman, think that one might lose sleep and appetite in wishing for it."

"Alas! why have I not a vessel to give the king?"

"A vessel!"

"Yes, for in return he would give me the necklace, and then you could eat and sleep in peace."

"You laugh."

"No, really."

"Well, I will tell you something that will astonish you. I would not have the necklace."

"So much the better, countess, for I could not give it to you."

"Neither you nor any one--that is what the queen feels."

"But I tell you that the king offered it to her."

"And I tell you that women like best those presents that come from people from whom they are not forced to accept them."

"I do not understand you."

"Well, never mind; and, after all, what does it matter to you, since you cannot have it?"

"Oh, if I were king and you were queen, I would force you to have it."

"Well, without being king, oblige the queen to have it, and see if she is angry,