of Aramis kindled in spite of himself.

"Ah," said he, dissembling his emotion under a feigned carelessness,
"do not talk of such things, and suffer love pains? VANITAS VANITATUM!
According to your idea, then, my brain is turned. And for whom-for some
GRISETTE, some chambermaid with whom I have trifled in some garrison?
Fie!"

"Pardon, my dear Aramis, but I thought you carried your eyes higher."

"Higher? And who am I, to nourish such ambition? A poor Musketeer, a
beggar, an unknown-who hates slavery, and finds himself ill-placed in
the world."

"Aramis, Aramis!" cried d'Artagnan, looking at his friend with an air of
doubt.

"Dust I am, and to dust I return. Life is full of humiliations and
sorrows," continued he, becoming still more melancholy; "all the ties
which attach him to life break in the hand of man, particularly the
golden ties. Oh, my dear d'Artagnan," resumed Aramis, giving to his
voice a slight tone of bitterness, "trust me! Conceal your wounds when
you have any; silence is the last joy of the unhappy. Beware of giving
anyone the clue to your griefs; the curious suck our tears as flies suck
the blood of a wounded hart."

"Alas, my dear Aramis," said d'Artagnan, in his turn heaving a profound
sigh, "that is my story you are relating!"

"How?"

"Yes; a woman whom I love, whom I adore, has just been torn from me by
force. I do not know where she is or whither they have conducted her.
She is perhaps a prisoner; she is perhaps dead!"

"Yes, but you have at least this consolation, that you can say to
yourself she has not quit you voluntarily, that if you learn no news of
her, it is because all communication with you is interdicted; while I--"

"Well?"

"Nothing," replied Aramis, "nothing."

"So you renounce the world, then, forever; that is a settled thing--a
resolution registered!"

"Forever! You are my friend today; tomorrow you will be no more to me
than a shadow, or rather, even, you will no longer exist. As for the
world, it is a sepulcher and nothing else."

"The devil! All this is very sad which you tell me."

"What will you? My vocation commands me; it carries me away."

D'Artagnan smiled, but made no answer.

Aramis continued, "And yet, while I do belong to the earth, I wish to
speak of you--of our friends."

"And on my part," said d'Artagnan, "I wished to speak of you, but I
find you so completely detached from everything! To love you cry, 'Fie!
Friends are shadows! The world is