est to render. The remark struck me; I like
to cite remarks that strike me."

"Your heart is as good as your mind is sound and true."

"You are too kind, I'm sure. You will dine here, of course?"

"No; I am not hungry."

"Eh! not dine! What a dreadful country England is."

"Not too much so, indeed--but--"

"Well. If such excellent fish and meat were not to be procured there, it
would hardly be endurable."

"Yes; I came to--"

"I am listening. Only just allow me to take something to drink. One gets
thirsty in Paris:" and he ordered a bottle of champagne to be brought;
and, having first filled Raoul's glass, he filled his own, drank it down
at a gulp, and then resumed; "I needed that, in order to listen to you
with proper attention. I am now quite at your service. What have you to
ask me, dear Raoul? What do you want?"

"Give me your opinion upon quarrels in general, my dear friend."

"My opinion! Well--but---- Explain your idea a little," replied Porthos,
rubbing his forehead.

"I mean--you are generally good-humored, or good-tempered, whenever any
misunderstanding may arise between a friend of yours and a stranger, for
instance?"

"Oh! in the best of tempers."

"Very good; but what do you do in such a case?"

"Whenever any friend of mine has a quarrel, I always act upon one
principle."

"What is that?"

"That all lost time is irreparable, and that one never arranges an
affair so well as when everything has been done to embroil the dispute
as much as possible."

"Ah! indeed, that is the principle on which you proceed."

"Thoroughly; so as soon as a quarrel takes place, I bring the two
parties together."

"Exactly."

"You understand that by this means it is impossible for an affair not to
be arranged."

"I should have thought that, treated in this manner, an affair would, on
the contrary--"

"Oh! not the least in the world. Just fancy now, I have had in my life
something like a hundred and eighty to a hundred and ninety regular
duels, without reckoning hasty encounters or chance meetings."

"It is a very handsome number," said Raoul, unable to resist a smile.

"A mere nothing; but I am so gentle. D'Artagnan reckons his duels by
hundreds. It is very true he is a little too hard and sharp--I have
often told him so."

"And so," resumed Raoul, "you generally arrange the affairs of honor
your friends confide to you."

"There is not a single instance in which I have not finished by
arranging