starlings, blackbirds and thrushes."
"But five hundred eggs is perfectly monstrous!"
"A salad-bowl will hold them easily enough," said Porthos.
D'Artagnan looked at Porthos admiringly for full five minutes, as if he had seen him for the first time, while Porthos spread himself out joyously and proudly. They remained in this state several minutes, Porthos smiling, and D'Artagnan looking at him. D'Artagnan was evidently trying to give the conversation a new turn. "Do you amuse yourself much here, Porthos?" he asked, at last, very likely after he had found out what he was searching for.
"Not always."
"I can imagine that; but when you get thoroughly bored, by-and-by, what do you intend to do?"
"Oh! I shall not be here for any length of time. Aramis is waiting until the last bump on my head disappears, in order to present me to the king, who I am told cannot endure the sight of a bump."
"Aramis is still in Paris, then?"
"No."
"Whereabouts is he, then?"
"At Fontainebleau."
"Alone?"
"With M. Fouquet."
"Very good. But do you happen to know one thing?"
"No, tell it me, and then I shall know."
"Well, then, I think that Aramis is forgetting you."
"Do you really think so?"
"Yes; for at Fontainebleau yonder, you must know, they are laughing, dancing, banqueting and drawing the corks of M. de Mazarin's wine in fine style. Are you aware that they have a ballet every evening there?"
"The deuce they have!"
"I assure you that your dear Aramis is forgetting you."
"Well, that is not at all unlikely, and I have myself thought so sometimes."
"Unless he is playing you a trick, the sly fellow!"
"Oh!"
"You know that Aramis is as sly as a fox."
"Yes, but to play me a trick—"
"Listen; in the first place, he puts you under a sort of sequestration."
"He sequestrates me! Do you mean to say I am sequestrated?"
"I think so."
"I wish you would have the goodness to prove that to me."
"Nothing easier. Do you ever go out?"
"Never."
"Do you ever ride on horseback?"
"Never."
"Are your friends allowed to come and see you?"
"Never."
"Very well, then; never to go out, never to ride on horseback, never to be allowed to see your friends, that is called being sequestrated."
"But why should Aramis sequestrate me?" inquired Porthos.
"Come," said D'Artagnan, "be frank, Porthos."
"As gold."
"It was Aramis who drew the plan of the fortifications at Belle-Isle, was it not?"
Porthos colored as he said, "Yes; but that was all that he did."
"Exactly, and my own opinion is that it was no very great affair after all."
"That is mine, too."
"Very good; I am delighted we are of the same opinion."
"He never even came to Belle-Isle," said Porthos.
"There now, you see."
"It was I who went to Vannes, as you may have seen."
"Say, rather, as I did see. Well, that is precisely the state of the case, my dear Porthos. Aramis, who only drew the plans, wishes to pass himself off as the engineer, while you, who, stone by stone, built the wall, the citadel, and the bastions, he wishes to reduce to the rank of a mere builder."
"By builder, you mean mason, perhaps?"
"Mason; the very word."
"Plasterer, in fact?"
"Precisely."
"A laborer?"
"Exactly."
"Oh! oh! my dear Aramis, you seem to think you are only five-and-twenty years of age still."
"Yes, and that is not all, for he believes you are fifty."
"I should have amazingly liked to have seen him at work."
"Yes, indeed."
"A fellow who has got the gout!"
"Yes."
"Who has lost three of his teeth!"
"Four."
"While I, look at mine." And Porthos, opening his large mouth very wide, displayed two rows of teeth rather less white than snow, but as even, hard, and sound as ivory.
"You can hardly believe, Porthos," said D'Artagnan, "what a fancy the king has for good teeth. Yours decide me; I will present you to the king myself."
"You?"
"Why not? Do you think I have less credit at court than Aramis?"
"Oh no!"
"Do you think that I have the slightest pretensions upon the fortifications at Belle-Isle?"
"Certainly not."
"It is your own interest alone which would induce me to do it."
"I don't doubt it in the least."
"Well! I am the intimate friend of the king; and a proof of that is, that whenever there is anything disagreeable to tell him, it is I who have to do it."
"But, dear D'Artagnan, if you present me—"
"Well!"
"Aramis will be angry."
"With me?"
"No, with me."
"Bah! whether he or I present you, since you are to be presented,
