llow!"

"Oh!"

"You know that Aramis is as sly as a fox."

"Yes, but to play me a trick--"

"Listen; in the first place, he puts you under a sort of sequestration."

"He sequestrates me! Do you mean to say I am sequestrated?"

"I think so."

"I wish you would have the goodness to prove that to me."

"Nothing easier. Do you ever go out?"

"Never."

"Do you ever ride on horseback?"

"Never."

"Are your friends allowed to come and see you?"

"Never."

"Very well, then; never to go out, never to ride on horseback, never to
be allowed to see your friends, that is called being sequestrated."

"But why should Aramis sequestrate me?" inquired Porthos.

"Come," said D'Artagnan, "be frank, Porthos."

"As gold."

"It was Aramis who drew the plan of the fortifications at Belle-Isle,
was it not?"

Porthos colored as he said, "Yes; but that was all that he did."

"Exactly, and my own opinion is that it was no very great affair after
all."

"That is mine, too."

"Very good; I am delighted we are of the same opinion."

"He never even came to Belle-Isle," said Porthos.

"There now, you see."

"It was I who went to Vannes, as you may have seen."

"Say, rather, as I did see. Well, that is precisely the state of the
case, my dear Porthos. Aramis, who only drew the plans, wishes to pass
himself off as the engineer, while you, who, stone by stone, built the
wall, the citadel, and the bastions, he wishes to reduce to the rank of
a mere builder."

"By builder, you mean mason, perhaps?"

"Mason; the very word."

"Plasterer, in fact?"

"Precisely."

"A laborer?"

"Exactly."

"Oh! oh! my dear Aramis, you seem to think you are only five-and-twenty
years of age still."

"Yes, and that is not all, for he believes you are fifty."

"I should have amazingly liked to have seen him at work."

"Yes, indeed."

"A fellow who has got the gout!"

"Yes."

"Who has lost three of his teeth!"

"Four."

"While I, look at mine." And Porthos, opening his large mouth very wide,
displayed two rows of teeth rather less white than snow, but as even,
hard, and sound as ivory.

"You can hardly believe, Porthos," said D'Artagnan, "what a fancy the
king has for good teeth. Yours decide me; I will present you to the king
myself."

"You?"

"Why not? Do you think I have less credit at court than Aramis?"

"Oh no!"

"Do you think that I have the slightest pretensions upon the
fortifications at Belle-Isle?"

"