“The reason! — A question to me!” exclaimed the king.
“A demand, sire!”
The king, leaning with both his hands upon the table, said, in a deep tone of concentrated passion: “You have lost all recollection of what is usual at court. At court, please to remember, no one ventures to put a question to the king.”
“Very true, sire; but if men do not question, they conjecture.”
“Conjecture! What may that mean, monsieur?”
“Very frequently, sire, conjecture with regard to a particular subject implies a want of frankness on the part of the king — ”
“Monsieur!”