You know that my husband, in leaving his fortune entirely to Jeanne, treated me very badly.

You may know this, or you may not know it, but the fact remains that I am a very poor woman." De Brensault nodded sympathetically.

He guessed pretty well what was coming.
"If I," the Princess continued, "assist you to gain my stepdaughter Jeanne for your wife, and the control of all her fortune, it is only fair," she continued, "that I should be recompensed in some way for the allowance which I have been receiving as her guardian, and which will then come to an end.

I do not ask for anything impossible or unreasonable.

I want you to give me twenty thousand pounds the day that you marry Jeanne.