Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/52

Rh 42 TEN YEARS LATER. '"That they may be; but I do not perceive why, on that account, I should be forbidden to hate Monsieur d'Artag- nan." "What cause has he given you?" "Me! personally, none." "Why hate him, therefore?" "Ask my dead father that question." "Eeally, my dear De Wardes,you surprise me. Monsieur d'Artagnan is not one to leave unsettled any enmity he may have to arrange, without completely clearing his ac- count. Your father, I have heard, on his side, carried mat- ters with a high hand. Moreover, there are no enmities so bitter which cannot be washed away by blood, by a good sword-thrust loyally given." "Listen to me, my dear De Guiche, this inveterate dis- like existed between my father and Monsieur d'Artagnan, and when I was quite a child he acquainted me with the reason for it, and, as forming part of my inheritance, I re- gard it as a particular legacy bestowed ui^on me." "And does this hatred concern Monsieur d'Artagnan alone?" "As for that. Monsieur d'Artagnan was too intimately as- sociated with his three friends, that some portion of the full measure of my hatred for him should not fall to their lot, and that hatred is of such a nature that, whenever the opportunity occurs, they shall have no occasion to complain of their portion." De Guiche had kept his eyes fixed on De Wardes, and shuddered at the bitter manner in which the young man smiled. Something like a presentiment flashed across his mind; he knew that the time had passed aw^y for grands coups ejitre gentilsliommes; but that the feeling of hatred treasured up in the mind, instead of being diffused abroad, was still hatred all the same; that a smile was sometimes as full of meaning as a threat; and, in a word, that to the fathers who had hated with their hearts and fought with their arms Avould now succeed the sons, who, themselves also, would indeed hate with their hearts, but would no longer encounter their enemies, save by the means of in- trigue or treachery. As, therefore, it certainly was not Raoul whom he could suspect either of intrigue or treach- ery, it was on Raoul's account that De Guiche trembled. However, while these gloomy forebodings cast a shade of anxiety over De Guiche's countenance, De Wardes had resumed the entire mastery over himself.