The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [66]
“Aramis? Who is that?”
“Come, now! Do you mean to tell me you don’t know Aramis?”
“It’s the first time I’ve heard mention of his name.”
“So it’s the first time you’ve come to that house?”
“Of course.”
“And you didn’t know that a young man lived there?”
“No.”
“A musketeer?”
“Not at all.”
“So it wasn’t him you came looking for?”
“Not in the least. Besides, you saw very well that the person I spoke with was a woman.”
“True; but that woman is one of Aramis’s friends.”
“I know nothing about it.”
“Since she’s living at his place.”
“That’s no concern of mine.”
“But who is she?”
“Oh, that is not my secret!”
“Dear Mme Bonacieux, you are charming; but at the same time you are the most mysterious woman…”
“Do I lose anything by that?”
“No, on the contrary, you are adorable.”
“Give me your arm, then.”
“Gladly. And now?”
“Now escort me.”
“Where to?”
“Where I’m going.”
“But where are you going?”
“You’ll see, since you’re going to leave me at the door.”
“Shall I wait for you?”
“It will be useless.”
“So you’ll come back alone?”
“Maybe yes, maybe no.”
“But will the person who accompanies you afterwards be a man or a woman?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Well, I will certainly know!”
“How’s that?”
“I’ll wait for you to come out.”
“In that case, good-bye!”
“How’s that?”
“I don’t need you.”
“But you asked for…”
“The help of a gentleman, not the surveillance of a spy.”
“That’s a rather strong word!”
“What do you call someone who follows people against their will?”
“Indiscreet.”
“That’s too mild a word.”
“Come, Madame, I see clearly that one must do everything you want.”
“Why deprive yourself of the merit of doing so at once?”
“Is there no way to repent?”
“And do you really repent?”
“That I don’t know. But what I do know is that I will promise you to do all you want, if you let me accompany you where you’re going.”
“And you’ll leave me then?”
“Yes.”
“You won’t spy on me when I come out?”
“No.”
“Word of honor?”
“As I’m a gentleman!”
“Take my arm then and let’s go.”
D’Artagnan offered his arm to Mme Bonacieux, who hung on it, half laughing, half trembling, and together they came to the top of the rue de la Harpe. There the young woman seemed to hesitate, as she had done already on the rue de Vaugirard. However, she seemed to recognize a door by certain signs, and going up to that door, she said:
“And now, Monsieur, my business is here. A thousand thanks for your honorable company, which has spared me all the dangers to which I would have been exposed alone. But the moment has come to keep your word: I have reached my destination.”
“And you will have nothing to fear on coming back?”
“I will have only thieves to fear.”
“Is that nothing?”
“What could they take from me? I haven’t got a penny.”
“You’re forgetting that beautiful handkerchief embroidered with a coat of arms.”
“Which one?”
“The one I found at your feet and put back in your pocket.”
“Silence, silence, poor boy!” cried the young woman. “Do you want to ruin me?”
“You see very well that there is still danger for you, since a single word makes you tremble, and you admit that, if that word were heard, you would be lost. Ah! wait, Madame,” cried d’Artagnan, seizing her hand and covering her with an ardent gaze, “wait! Be more generous, confide in me; haven’t you read in my eyes that there is only devotion and sympathy in my heart?”
“I have,” replied Mme Bonacieux, “and so, if you ask me my secrets, I’ll tell them to you; but those of others are something else.”
“Very well,” said d’Artagnan, “I will find them out. Since those secrets may have an influence on your life, those secrets must become mine.”
“Beware of doing that,” the young woman cried with a seriousness that made d’Artagnan shudder in spite of himself. “Oh! Do not interfere in anything that has to do with me, do not seek to aid me in what I am carrying out; I ask you that in the name of the interest I inspire in you, in the name of the service you have rendered me, which I will not forget as long as I live. Believe rather in what I am saying to you. Do not occupy