"Most certainly; I am even thinking of sending him back as soon as possible. Porthos is very fond of display; he is a man whose weaknesses D'Artagnan, Athos and myself are alone acquainted with; he never commits himself in any way; he is dignity itself; to the officers there, he would seem like a Paladin of the time of the Crusades. He would make the whole staff drunk, without getting so himself, and every one will regard him as an object of admiration and sympathy; if, therefore, it should happen that we should have any orders requiring to be carried out, Porthos is an incarnation of the order itself, and whatever he chose to do, others would find themselves obliged to submit to." "Send him back then." "That is what I intend to do; but in a few days only, for I must not omit to tell you one thing." "What is it?" "I begin to suspect D'Artagnan. He is not at Fontainebleau, as you may have noticed, and D'Artagnan is never absent, or apparently idle, without some object in view. And now that my own affairs are settled, I am going to try and ascertain what the affairs are in which D'Artagnan is engaged." "Your own affairs are settled, you say?" "Yes." "You are very fortunate, in that case, then, and I should like to be able to say the same." "I hope you do not make yourself uneasy." "Hum!" "Nothing could be better than the king's reception of you." "True." "And Colbert lets you be quiet." "Almost so." "In that case," said Aramis, with that connection of ideas which marked him, "in that, case, then, we can bestow a thought upon the young girl I was speaking to you about yesterday." "Whom do you mean?" "What, have you forgotten already? I mean La Valliere." "Ah! of course, of course." "Do you object, then, to try and make a conquest of her?" "In one respect only, my heart is engaged in another direction; and I positively do not care about the girl in the least." "Oh! oh!" said Aramis, "your heart is engaged, you say. The deuce! we must take care of that!" "Why?" "Because it is terrible to have the heart occupied, when others, beside yourself, have so much need of the head." "You are right. So, you see, at your first summons, I left everything. But to return to this girl. What good do you see in my troubling myself about her?" "This.--The king, it is said, has taken a fancy to her; at least, so it is supposed." "But you, who know everything, know very differently." "I know that the king has changed with great rapidity; that the day before yesterday, he was mad about Madame; that a few days ago, Monsieur complained of it, even to the queen-mother; and that some conjugal misunderstandings and maternal scoldings were the consequence." "How do you know all that?" "I do know it; at all events, since these misunderstandings and scoldings the king has not addressed a word, has not paid the slightest attention, to her royal highness." "Well, what next?"