The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [174]
“Three hundred livres. Well, let’s make it three hundred livres then,” the procureuse said with a sigh.
Porthos smiled. It will be remembered that he had the saddle that came to him from Buckingham, so this was three hundred livres that he slyly counted on putting in his pocket.
“Then,” he went on, “there’s my lackey’s horse and my valise. As for weapons, you needn’t worry about that, I’ve got them.”
“A horse for your servant?” picked up the hesitant procureuse. “But that’s rather grand of you, my friend.”
“Eh, Madame!” Porthos said proudly, “am I some sort of yokel, by any chance?”
“No, I only meant to say that a handsome mule sometimes looks as good as a horse, and it seems to me that in procuring you a handsome mule for Mousqueton…”
“Let it be a handsome mule,” said Porthos. “You’re right. I’ve seen Spanish grandees whose entire suite was on mule-back. But then, you understand, Mme Coquenard, a mule with plumes and bells?”
“Don’t worry,” said the procureuse.
“There remains the valise,” Porthos continued.
“Oh, that needn’t trouble you at all,” cried Mme Coquenard. “My husband has five or six valises. You can choose the best of them. There’s one he especially preferred for his travels, and it’s so big you could put a whole world in it.”
“It’s empty, then, this valise of yours?” Porthos asked naively.
“Certainly it’s empty,” the procureuse replied naively.
“Ah, but what I need is a well-furnished valise, my dear.”
Mme Coquenard heaved some fresh sighs. Molière had not yet written his play The Miser. Mme Coquenard was thus a step ahead of Harpagon.138
Then the remainder of the outfit was successively haggled over in the same way, and the result of the scene was that the procureuse would ask her husband for a loan of eight hundred livres in cash, and would furnish the horse and the mule that would have the honor of carrying Porthos and Mousqueton to glory.
With these conditions agreed upon, along with the stipulated interest and the period of repayment, Porthos took leave of Mme Coquenard. The lady tried to keep him there by making soft eyes at him, but Porthos used the duties of the service as a pretext, and the procureuse had to yield to the king.
The musketeer returned home with a very ill-humored hunger.
XXXIII
SOUBRETTE AND MISTRESS
Meanwhile, as we have said, despite the cries of his conscience and the wise advice of Athos, d’Artagnan fell more in love with Milady by the hour. And so he went every day without fail to pay her court, to which the adventurous Gascon was convinced she could not fail to respond sooner or later.
One day as he arrived, nose to the winds, light as a man expecting a shower of gold, he met the soubrette under the gateway. But this time the pretty Kitty was not content with smiling at him in passing. She gently took his hand.
“Right,” thought d’Artagnan, “she’s been entrusted with some message for me from her mistress; she’s going to set up some rendezvous for me that she didn’t dare mention aloud.”
And he looked at the lovely girl with the most triumphant air he could muster.
“I’d like to say a couple of words to you, Monsieur le chevalier,” the soubrette stammered.
“Speak, my girl, speak,” said d’Artagnan, “I’m listening.”
“It’s impossible here. What I have to say to you is too long and above all too secret.”
“Well, then, what are we to do?”
“If Monsieur le chevalier would kindly follow me,” Kitty said timidly.
“Wherever you like, my lovely girl.”
“Come, then.”
And Kitty, who had never let go of d’Artagnan’s hand, led him to a dark and winding stairway and, after going up fifteen steps, opened a door.
“Go in, Monsieur le chevalier,” she said. “Here we will be alone and we can talk.”
“And what room is this, my lovely girl?” asked d’Artagnan.
“It is my bedroom, Monsieur le chevalier. It communicates with my mistress’s bedroom by that door. But don’t worry, she won’t be able to hear what we say; she