I preserve engraved in my memory."

The procurator's wife uttered a groan.

"Besides," said she, "the sum you required me to borrow was rather
large."

"Madame Coquenard, I gave you the preference. I had but to write to
the Duchesse--but I won't repeat her name, for I am incapable of
compromising a woman; but this I know, that I had but to write to her
and she would have sent me fifteen hundred."

The procurator's wife shed a tear.

"Monsieur Porthos," said she, "I can assure you that you have severely
punished me; and if in the time to come you should find yourself in a
similar situation, you have but to apply to me."

"Fie, madame, fie!" said Porthos, as if disgusted. "Let us not talk
about money, if you please; it is humiliating."

"Then you no longer love me!" said the procurator's wife, slowly and
sadly.

Porthos maintained a majestic silence.

"And that is the only reply you make? Alas, I understand."

"Think of the offense you have committed toward me, madame! It remains
HERE!" said Porthos, placing his hand on his heart, and pressing it
strongly.

"I will repair it, indeed I will, my dear Porthos."

"Besides, what did I ask of you?" resumed Porthos, with a movement of
the shoulders full of good fellowship. "A loan, nothing more! After all,
I am not an unreasonable man. I know you are not rich, Madame Coquenard,
and that your husband is obliged to bleed his poor clients to squeeze a
few paltry crowns from them. Oh! If you were a duchess, a marchioness,
or a countess, it would be quite a different thing; it would be
unpardonable."

The procurator's wife was piqued.

"Please to know, Monsieur Porthos," said she, "that my strongbox, the
strongbox of a procurator's wife though it may be, is better filled than
those of your affected minxes."

"The doubles the offense," said Porthos, disengaging his arm from that
of the procurator's wife; "for if you are rich, Madame Coquenard, then
there is no excuse for your refusal."

"When I said rich," replied the procurator's wife, who saw that she had
gone too far, "you must not take the word literally. I am not precisely
rich, though I am pretty well off."

"Hold, madame," said Porthos, "let us say no more upon the subject, I
beg of you. You have misunderstood me, all sympathy is extinct between
us."

"Ingrate that you are!"

"Ah! I advise you to complain!" said Porthos.

"Begone, then, to your beautiful duchess; I will detain you no longer."

"And