inquired Saint-Aignan.

“The one we are making up to go to the fete the superintendent is about to give at Vaux. Ah! Saint-Aignan, you will, at last, see a fete, a royal fete, by the side of which all our amusements at Fontainebleau are petty, contemptible affairs.”

“At Vaux! the superintendent going to give a fete in your majesty’s honor? Nothing more than that!”

“‘Nothing more than that,’ do you say? It is very diverting to find you treating it with so much disdain.

Are you who express such an indifference on the subject, aware, that as soon as it is known that M. Fouquet is going to receive me at Vaux next Sunday week, people will be striving their very utmost to get invited to the fete? I repeat, Saint-Aignan, you shall be one of the invited guests.”