"Cardinal!"

"Heavens! did I not see you the other day smile on the Duke
of Orleans? or rather at what he said?"

"And what was he saying?"

"He said this, madame: `Mazarin is a stumbling-block. Send
him away and all will then be well.'"

"What do you wish me to do?"

"Oh, madame! you are the queen!"

"Queen, forsooth! when I am at the mercy of every scribbler
in the Palais Royal who covers waste paper with nonsense, or
of every country squire in the kingdom."

"Nevertheless, you have still the power of banishing from
your presence those whom you do not like!"

"That is to say, whom you do not like," returned the queen.

"I! persons whom I do not like!"

"Yes, indeed. Who sent away Madame de Chevreuse after she
had been persecuted twelve years under the last reign?"

"A woman of intrigue, who wanted to keep up against me the