?"

"Yes, and that a serious one."

"Your majesty alarms me; and yet I wait most confident in your justice
and goodness."

"Do you know I am told, Monsieur Fouquet, that you are preparing a grand
_fete_ at Vaux."

Fouquet smiled, as a sick man would do at the first shiver of a fever
which has left him but returns again.

"And that you have not invited me!" continued the king.

"Sire," replied Fouquet, "I have not even thought of the _fete_ you
speak of, and it was only yesterday evening that one of my _friends_"
(Fouquet laid a stress upon the word) "was kind enough to make me think
of it."

"Yet I saw you yesterday evening, Monsieur Fouquet, and you said nothing
to me about it."

"How dared I hope that your majesty would so greatly descend from your
own exalted station as to honor my dwelling with your royal presence?"

"Excuse me, Monsieur Fouquet, you did not speak to me about your
_fete_."

"I did not allude to the _fete_ to your majesty, I repeat, in the first
place, because nothing had been decided with regard to it, and,
secondly, because I feared a refusal."

"And something made you fear a refusal, Monsieur Fouquet? You see I am
determined to push you hard."

"The profound wish I had that your majesty should accept my
invitation--"

"Well, Monsieur Fouquet, nothing is easier, I perceive, than our coming
to an understanding. Your wish is to invite me to your _fete_--my own is
to be present at it; invite me, and I will go."

"Is it possible that your majesty will deign to accept?" murmured the
surintendant.

"Why, really, monsieur," said the king, laughing, "I think I do more
than accept--I think I invite myself."

"Your majesty overwhelms me with honor and delight!" exclaimed Fouquet;
"but I shall be obliged to repeat what M. de Vieuville said to your
ancestor Henry the Fourth, '_Domine non sum dignus_.'"

"To which I reply, Monsieur Fouquet, that if you give a _fete_, I will
go whether I am invited or not."

"I thank your majesty deeply," said Fouquet, as he raised his head
beneath this favor, which he was convinced would be his ruin.

"But how could your majesty have been informed of it?"

"By public rumor, Monsieur Fouquet, which says such wonderful things of
yourself and of the marvels of your house. Would you become proud,
Monsieur Fouquet, if the king were to be jealous of you?"

"I should be the happiest man in the world, sire, since the very day on
which your majesty were to b