The mask of
devoted courtiers and true servants had for the first time fallen
from their faces, and Marie Antoinette discovered these all at once
wholly estranged and unknown countenances; eyes without the beam of
friendship, lips without the smile of devotion.
The queen sought to put her hand to her heart. It seemed to her as
if she had been wounded with a dagger. She felt as if she must cry
aloud with pain and grief. But she commanded herself and only gave
utterance to a faint sigh.
"You are not the only ones who will lose, my friends," said she,
gently. "The king is a loser, too; for if he gives up the great
stables, he sacrifices to the common good his horses, his equipages,
and, above all, his true servants. We must all learn to put up with
limitations and a reduction of outlay. But we can still remain good
friends, and here in Trianon pass many pleasant days with one
another in harmless gayety and happy contentment. Come, my friends,
let us forget these cares and these constraints; let us, despite all
these things, be merry and glad. Duke de Coigny, you have been for a
week my debtor in billiards, to-day you must make it up. Come, my
friends, let us go into the billiard-room."
And the queen, who had found her gayety again, went laughing in
advance of her friends into the next apartment, where the billiard-
table stood.
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