"I should not like to tell,
papa. But if it is true that the dauphin has left us and is not
coming back again, and yet has not taken away every thing which
belongs to him, there is something which I should very much like to
have, and which would please me more than that I am now the
dauphin."
The king turned his face inquiringly to the queen. "Do you
understand, Marie, what he wants to say?" he whispered.
"I think I can guess," answered Marie Antoinette softly, and she
walked quickly across the room, opened the door of the adjoining
apartment, and whispered a few words to the page who was there. Then
she returned to the king, but while doing so she stepped upon the
bouquet which had fallen out of the boy's hands when his father
lifted him up.
"Oh, my pretty violets, my pretty roses," cried the prince, sadly,
and his face put on a sorrowful expression. But he quickly
brightened, and, looking up at the queen, he said, smiling, "Mamma
queen, I wish you always walked on flowers which I have planted and
plucked for you!"
At this moment the door softly opened, and a little black dog
stepped in, and ran forward, whining, directly up to the prince.
"Moufflet," cried the child, falling upon his knee, "Moufflet!"
The little dog, with its long, curly locks of hair, put its fore-
paws upon the shoulders of the boy and eagerly and tenderly licked
his laughing, rosy face.
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