"And that is the only reply you make? Alas, I understand."
"Think of the offense you have committed toward me, madame! It remains HERE!" said Porthos, placing his hand on his heart, and pressing it strongly.
"I will repair it, indeed I will, my dear Porthos."
"Besides, what did I ask of you?" resumed Porthos, with a movement of the shoulders full of good fellowship. "A loan, nothing more! After all, I am not an unreasonable man. I know you are not rich, Madame Coquenard, and that your husband is obliged to bleed his poor clients to squeeze a few paltry crowns from them. Oh! If you were a d.u.c.h.ess, a marchioness, or a countess, it would be quite a different thing; it would be unpardonable."
The procurator"s wife was piqued.
"Please to know, Monsieur Porthos," said she, "that my strongbox, the strongbox of a procurator"s wife though it may be, is better filled than those of your affected minxes."
"The doubles the offense," said Porthos, disengaging his arm from that of the procurator"s wife; "for if you are rich, Madame Coquenard, then there is no excuse for your refusal."
"When I said rich," replied the procurator"s wife, who saw that she had gone too far, "you must not take the word literally. I am not precisely rich, though I am pretty well off."
"Hold, madame," said Porthos, "let us say no more upon the subject, I beg of you. You have misunderstood me, all sympathy is extinct between us."
"Ingrate that you are!"
"Ah! I advise you to complain!" said Porthos.
"Begone, then, to your beautiful d.u.c.h.ess; I will detain you no longer."
"And she is not to be despised, in my opinion."
"Now, Monsieur Porthos, once more, and this is the last! Do you love me still?"
"Ah, madame," said Porthos, in the most melancholy tone he could a.s.sume, "when we are about to enter upon a campaign--a campaign, in which my presentiments tell me I shall be killed--"
"Oh, don"t talk of such things!" cried the procurator"s wife, bursting into tears.
"Something whispers me so," continued Porthos, becoming more and more melancholy.
"Rather say that you have a new love."
"Not so; I speak frankly to you. No object affects me; and I even feel here, at the bottom of my heart, something which speaks for you. But in fifteen days, as you know, or as you do not know, this fatal campaign is to open. I shall be fearfully preoccupied with my outfit. Then I must make a journey to see my family, in the lower part of Brittany, to obtain the sum necessary for my departure."
Porthos observed a last struggle between love and avarice.
"And as," continued he, "the d.u.c.h.ess whom you saw at the church has estates near to those of my family, we mean to make the journey together. Journeys, you know, appear much shorter when we travel two in company."
"Have you no friends in Paris, then, Monsieur Porthos?" said the procurator"s wife.
"I thought I had," said Porthos, resuming his melancholy air; "but I have been taught my mistake."
"You have some!" cried the procurator"s wife, in a transport that surprised even herself. "Come to our house tomorrow. You are the son of my aunt, consequently my cousin; you come from Noyon, in Picardy; you have several lawsuits and no attorney. Can you recollect all that?"
"Perfectly, madame."
"Come at dinnertime."
"Very well."
"And be upon your guard before my husband, who is rather shrewd, notwithstanding his seventy-six years."
"Seventy-six years! PESTE! That"s a fine age!" replied Porthos.
"A great age, you mean, Monsieur Porthos. Yes, the poor man may be expected to leave me a widow, any hour," continued she, throwing a significant glance at Porthos. "Fortunately, by our marriage contract, the survivor takes everything."
"All?"
"Yes, all."
"You are a woman of precaution, I see, my dear Madame Coquenard," said Porthos, squeezing the hand of the procurator"s wife tenderly.
"We are then reconciled, dear Monsieur Porthos?" said she, simpering.
"For life," replied Porthos, in the same manner.
"Till we meet again, then, dear traitor!"
"Till we meet again, my forgetful charmer!"
"Tomorrow, my angel!"
"Tomorrow, flame of my life!"
30 D"ARTAGNAN AND THE ENGLISHMAN
D"Artagnan followed Milady without being perceived by her. He saw her get into her carriage, and heard her order the coachman to drive to St.
Germain.
It was useless to try to keep pace on foot with a carriage drawn by two powerful horses. D"Artagnan therefore returned to the Rue Ferou.
In the Rue de Seine he met Planchet, who had stopped before the house of a pastry cook, and was contemplating with ecstasy a cake of the most appetizing appearance.
He ordered him to go and saddle two horses in M. de Treville"s stables--one for himself, d"Artagnan, and one for Planchet--and bring them to Athens"s place. Once for all, Treville had placed his stable at d"Artagnan"s service.
Planchet proceeded toward the Rue du Colombier, and d"Artagnan toward the Rue Ferou. Athos was at home, emptying sadly a bottle of the famous Spanish wine he had brought back with him from his journey into Picardy.
He made a sign for Grimaud to bring a gla.s.s for d"Artagnan, and Grimaud obeyed as usual.
D"Artagnan related to Athos all that had pa.s.sed at the church between Porthos and the procurator"s wife, and how their comrade was probably by that time in a fair way to be equipped.
"As for me," replied Athos to this recital, "I am quite at my ease; it will not be women that will defray the expense of my outfit."