Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/177

Rh "What does that mean?" inquired Aramis.

"That I have some one to breakfast with me, and that preparations are to be made accordingly."

"And you rang thrice. Really, my dear governor, I begin to think you are acting ceremoniously with me."

"No, indeed. Besides, the least I can do is to receive you in the best way I can."

"But why so?"

"Because not a prince, even, could have done what you have done for me."

"Nonsense! nonsense!"

"Nay, I assure you "

"Let us speak of other matters," said Aramis. "Or rather, tell me how your affairs here are getting on."

"Not overwell."

"The deuce!"

"Monsieur de Mazarin was not hard enough."

"Yes, I see; you require a government full of suspicion — like that of the old cardinal, for instance."

"Yes; matters went on better under him. The brother of his 'gray eminence' made his fortune in it."

"Believe me, my dear governor," said Aramis, drawing closer to Baisemeaux, "a young king is well worth an old cardinal. Youth has its suspicions, its fits of anger, its prejudices, as old age has its hatreds, its precautions, and its fears. Have you paid your three years' profits to Louviere and to Tremblay?"

"Most certainly I have."

"So that you have nothing more to give them than the fifty thousand francs which I have brought with me?"

"Yes."

"Have you not saved anything, then?"

"My lord, in giving the fifty thousand francs of my own to these gentlemen, I assure you that I give them everything I gain. I told Monsieur d'Artagnan so yesterday evening."

"Ah!" said Aramis, whose eyes sparkled for a moment, but became immediately afterward as unmoved as before; "so you have seen my old friend D'Artagnan; how was he?"

"Wonderfully well."

"And what did you say to him, Monsieur de Baisemeaux?"

"I told him," continued the governor, not perceiving his own thoughtlessness — "I told him that I fed my prisoners too well."

"How many have you?" inquired Aramis, in an indifferent tone of voice.