something impossible about the gift.  The King has taken all Madame de Maintenon's time. By the time she comes to give to Saint-Cyr, there is no time left for her to give. What she gives is not, but there is a gift. What is given is this impossible remainder which is not, but is not nothing. "The gift is the impossible," says Derrida (Given Time 7): "Not impossible but the impossible." Gifts happen all the time, and they happen because of rather than despite this impossibility. The gift is the impossible, but there are gifts.

There are all sorts of things. The there is is what presents itself, as contingent, gratuitous, given--as a gift, in other words. The gift occurs wherever there is that minimal effraction in the circle of exchange which makes the whole thing possible, and which occurs whenever there is