He walked directly toward the Marechale, bowed low, and kissed her hand.
"Well, Henri," she said, "are your horses ready?
At what hour do you depart ?" "Immediately after dinner, Madame, if you will allow me," said he to his mother, with the ceremonious respect of the times; and passing behind her, he saluted M.de Bassompierre before seating himself at the left of his eldest brother.
"Well," said the Marechal, continuing to eat with an excellent appetite, "you are about to depart, my son; you are going to the court--a slippery place nowadays.

I am sorry for your sake that it is not now what it used to be.

In former times, the court was simply the drawing-room of the King, in which he received his natural friends: nobles of great family, his peers, who visited him to show their devotion and their friendship, lost their money with him, and accompanied him in his pleasure parties, but never received anything from him, except permission to bring their vassals with them, to break their heads in his service.

The honors a man of quality received did not enrich him, for he paid for them out of his purse.

I sold an estate for every grade I received; the title of colonel-general of the Swiss cost me four hundred thousand crowns, and at the baptism of the present King I had to buy a costume that cost me a hundred thousand francs." "Ah!" said the mistress of the house, smiling, "you must acknowledge for once that you were not obliged to do that.