ou surely must have seen some people at Boulogne, one of
our friends, for instance; it is no great time ago?"

"Some people--one of our friends--"

"Your memory is short."

"Ah! true; Bragelonne, you mean."

"Exactly so."

"Who was on his way to fulfill a mission, with which he was intrusted,
to King Charles II."

"Precisely. Well, then, did he not tell you, or did not you tell him--"

"I do not precisely know what I told him, I must confess; but I do know
what I did not tell him." De Wardes was finesse itself. He perfectly
well knew from De Guiche's tone and manner, which was cold and
dignified, that the conversation was about assuming a disagreeable turn.
He resolved to let it take what course it pleased, and to keep strictly
on his guard.

"May I ask what it was you did not tell him?" inquired De Guiche.

"That about La Valliere."

"La Valliere.... What is it? and what was that strange circumstance you
seem to have known out yonder, which Bragelonne, who was here on the
spot, was not acquainted with?"

"Do you really ask me that in a serious manner?"

"Nothing can be more so."

"What! you, a member of the court, living in Madame's household, a
friend of Monsieur's, a guest at their table, the favorite of our lovely
princess?"

Guiche colored violently from anger. "What princess are you alluding
to?" he said.

"I am only acquainted with one, my dear fellow. I am speaking of Madame
herself. Are you devoted to another princess, then? Come, tell me."

Guiche was on the point of launching out, but he saw the drift of the
remark. A quarrel was imminent between the two young men. De Wardes
wished the quarrel to be only in Madame's name, while De Guiche would
not accept it except on La Valliere's account. From this moment, it
became a series of feigned attacks, which would have continued until one
of the two had been touched home. De Guiche therefore resumed all the
self-possession he could command.

"There is not the slightest question in the world of Madame in this
matter, my dear De Wardes," said Guiche, "but simply of what you were
talking about just now."

"What was I saying?"

"That you had concealed certain things from Bragelonne."

"Certain things which you know as well as I do," replied De Wardes.

"No, upon my honor."

"Nonsense."

"If you tell me what it is, I shall know, but not otherwise, I swear."

"What! I, who have just arrived from a distance of sixty leagues, and
you who hav