drowning
child--yes; but a child that can be saved--you shall see. But, first of
all, let us talk about business. Did you not some time ago," he
continued, as Fouquet looked at him with a bewildered air, "speak to me
about an idea you had of giving a fete at Vaux?"

"Oh," said Fouquet, "that was when affairs were flourishing."

"A fete, I believe, to which the king invited himself of his own
accord?"

"No, no, my dear prelate; a fete to which M. Colbert advised the king to
invite himself."

"Ah--exactly; as it would be a fete of so costly a character that you
would be ruined in giving it."

"Precisely so. In other times, as I said just now, I had a kind of pride
in showing my enemies how inexhaustible my resources were; I felt it a
point of honor to strike them with amazement, in creating millions under
circumstances where they had imagined nothing but bankruptcies and
failures would follow. But at the present day I am arranging my accounts
with the state, with the king, with myself; and I must now become a
mean, stingy man; I shall be able to prove to the world that I can act
or operate with my deniers as I used to do with my bags of pistoles; and
from to-morrow my equipages shall be sold, my mansions mortgaged, my
expenses contracted."

"From to-morrow," interrupted Aramis, quietly, "you will occupy
yourself, without the slightest delay, with your fete at Vaux, which
must hereafter be spoken of as one of the most magnificent productions
of your most prosperous days."

"You are mad, Chevalier d'Herblay."

"I!--you do not think that."

"What do you mean then! Do you not know that a fete at Vaux, of the very
simplest possible character, would cost four or five millions?"

"I do not speak of a fete of the very simplest possible character, my
dear surintendant."

"But, since the fete is to be given to the king," replied Fouquet, who
misunderstood Aramis' idea, "it cannot be simple."

"Just so; it ought to be on a scale of the most unbounded magnificence."

"In that case, I shall have to spend ten or twelve millions."

"You shall spend twenty, if you require it," said Aramis, in a perfectly
calm voice.

"Where shall I get them?" exclaimed Fouquet.

"That is my affair, Monsieur le Surintendant; and do not be uneasy for a
moment about it. The money will be placed at once at your disposal, as
soon as you shall have arranged the plans of your fete."

"Chevalier! chevalier!" said Fouquet, giddy with amazem