When D'Artagnan saw his two companions in earnest conversation, he took the opposite side of the road, and letting his bridle drop upon his horse's neck, separated himself from the whole world, as he had done from Porthos and from Planchet. The moon shone softly through the foliage of the forest. The odors of the open country rose deliciously perfumed to the horses' nostrils, and they snorted and pranced about delightedly. Porthos and Planchet began to talk about hay-crops. Planchet admitted to Porthos that in the more advanced years of his life, he had certainly neglected agricultural pursuits for commerce, but that his childhood had been passed in Picardy, in the beautiful meadows where the grass grew as high as the knees, and where he had played under the green apple-trees covered with red-cheeked fruit; he went on to say, that he had solemnly promised himself that as soon as he should have made his fortune, he would return to nature, and end his days as he had begun them, as near as he possibly could to the earth itself, where all men must go at last. "Eh! eh!" said Porthos; "in that case, my dear Monsieur Planchet, your retreat is not far distant." "How so?" "Why, you seem to be in the way of making your fortune very soon." "Well, we are getting on pretty well, I must admit," replied Planchet. "Come, tell me, what is the extent of your ambition, and what is the amount you intend to retire upon?" "There is one circumstance, monsieur," said Planchet, without answering the question, "which occasions me a good deal of anxiety." "What is it?" inquired Porthos, looking all round him as if in search of the circumstance that annoyed Planchet, and desirous of freeing him from it. "Why, formerly," said the grocer, "you used to call me Planchet, quite short, and you would have spoken to me then in a much more familiar manner than you do now." "Certainly, certainly. I should have said so formerly," replied the good-natured Porthos, with an embarrassment full of delicacy; "but formerly--" "Formerly I was M. d'Artagnan's lackey; is not that what you mean?" "Yes." "Well, if I am not quite his lackey, I am as much as ever I was his devoted servant; and more than that, since that time--" "Well, Planchet?" "Since that time, I have had the honor of being in partnership with him." "Oh, oh!" said Porthos. "What, has D'Artagnan gone into the grocery business?" "No, no," said D'Artagnan, whom these words had drawn out of his reverie, and who entered into the conversation with that readiness and rapidity which distinguished every operation of his mind and body. "It was not D'Artagnan who entered into the grocery business, but Planchet, who entered into a political affair with me." "Yes," said Planchet, with mingled pride and satisfaction, "we transacted a little matter of business which brought me in a hundred thousand francs, and M. d'Artagnan two hundred thousand." "Oh, oh!" said Porthos, with admiration.