f your former mistress?"

"Yes, my dear fellow; she is anxious to be the wife of the
procureur-general. I certainly owed poor Vanel that slight concession,
and I am a gainer by it; since I, at the same time, can confer a
pleasure on his wife."

Aramis walked straight up to Fouquet, and took hold of his hand. "Do you
know," he said, very calmly, "the name of Madame Vanel's new lover?"

"Ah! she has a new lover, then? I was not aware of it; no, I have no
idea what his name is."

"His name is M. Jean-Baptiste Colbert; he is intendant of the finances:
he lives in the Rue Croix des Petits-Champs, where Madame de Chevreuse
has been this evening to take him Mazarin's letters, which she wishes to
sell."

"Gracious Heaven!" murmured Fouquet, passing his hand across his
forehead, from which the perspiration was starting.

"You now begin to understand, do you not?"

"That I am utterly lost!--yes."

"Do you now think it worth while to be so scrupulous with regard to
keeping your word?"

"Yes," said Fouquet.

"These obstinate people always contrive matters in such a way, that one
cannot but admire them all the while," murmured Aramis.

Fouquet held out his hand to him, and, at the very moment, a richly
ornamented tortoise-shell clock, supported by golden figures, which was
standing on a console table opposite to the fireplace, struck six. The
sound of a door being opened in the vestibule was heard, and Gourville
came to the door of the cabinet to inquire if Fouquet would received M.
Vanel. Fouquet turned his eyes from the gaze of Aramis, and then desired
that M. Vanel should be shown in.

Chapter XLIX. Monsieur Colbert's Rough Draft.

Vanel, who entered at this stage of the conversation, was nothing less
for Aramis and Fouquet than the full stop which completes a phrase.
But, for Vanel, Aramis's presence in Fouquet's cabinet had quite another
signification; and, therefore, at his first step into the room, he
paused as he looked at the delicate yet firm features of the bishop of
Vannes, and his look of astonishment soon became one of scrutinizing
attention. As for Fouquet, a perfect politician, that is to say,
complete master of himself, he had already, by the energy of his own
resolute will, contrived to remove from his face all traces of the
emotion which Aramis's revelation had occasioned. He was no longer,
therefore, a man overwhelmed by misfortune and reduced to resort to
expedients; he held his head proudly