I answered him that the
queen had not done so, that in one word she had no commission for
him, and that she was tired of his eternal pestering. ' But,' said
Bohmer, 'I must have an answer to the letter that I sent to her, and
to whom must I apply?' 'To nobody,' I answered. 'Her majesty has
burned your letter without reading it.' 'Ah! madame,' cried he,
'that is impossible. The queen knows that she owes me money.' "
"I owe him money!" cried the queen, horrified. "How can the
miserable man dare to assert such a thing?"
"That I said to him, your majesty, but he answered, with complete
self possession, that your majesty owed him a million and some five
hundred thousand francs, and when I asked him in complete amazement
for what articles your majesty owed him such a monstrous sum, he
answered, 'For my necklace.'"
"This miserable necklace again!" exclaimed the queen. "It seems as
if the man made it only to make a martyr of me with it. Year after
year I hear perpetually about this necklace, and it has been quite
in vain that, with all my care and good-will, I have sought to drive
from him this fixed idea that I must buy it. He is so far gone in
his illusion as to assert that I have bought it."
"Madame, this man is not insane," said the king, seriously. "Listen
further. Go on, Campan.
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