Derrida is citing Mme de Maintenon, morganatic wife of the King. He unravels a peculiar logic, which has everything to do with the time and the gift. The King takes all my time; there is nothing left; what is left has no existence, it is not. And yet there is something left, something which may be nothing at all, and that is what is given to Saint-Cyr. This rest has no existence: it is nothing, because everything that is is the King’s. It is not what is left over for me, something I can claim as mine after the King’s taken his share, because that share is everything and what’s left is nothing, nothing at all. If we can nevertheless say there is a remainder, this there is seems to appear only because it is given away. It’s not the King’s, it’s not mine, and it’s not Saint-Cyr’s: I give it to Saint-Cyr, and it appears only in this giving. A gratuity. There is something--an event erupts--even though that it is nothing at all. Something appears.

Like a signal, perhaps.