“Alas! is that all you love in me?” asked D’Artagnan.

“I love you also—you!” said she, taking his hand.

And the warm pressure made D’Artagnan tremble, as if the fever consuming milady communicated itself to him by the touch.

“You love me—you!” cried he. “Oh, if that were so, I should lose my reason!”

And he folded her in his arms. She made no effort to avoid the kiss which he pressed upon her lips, only she did not return it.

Her lips were cold; it appeared to D’Artagnan that he had kissed a statue.

He was not the less intoxicated with joy, electrified by love. He almost believed in milady’s tenderness; he almost believed in De Wardes’s crime. If De Wardes had at that moment been at hand, he would have killed him.

Milady seized her opportunity.

“His name is—” said she, in her turn.

“De Wardes; I know,” cried D’Artagnan.

“And how do you know?” asked milady, seizing both his hands, and trying to read with her eyes to the bottom of his heart.

D’Artagnan felt that he had gone too far, and that he had made a mistake.

“Tell me! tell me! tell me, I say!” repeated milady; “how do you know?”

“How do I know?” said D’Artagnan.

“Yes.”

“I know, because yesterday M. de Wardes, in a parlour where I was, displayed a ring which he said you gave him.”

“Scoundrel!” cried milady.

The epithet, as may be easily understood, resounded to the very bottom of D’Artagnan’s heart.

“Well?” continued she.

“Well, I will avenge you of this ‘scoundrel,’ ” replied D’Artagnan, giving himself the airs of Don Japhet of Armenia.

“Thanks, my brave friend!” cried milady. “And when shall I be avenged?”

“To-morrow—immediately—when you please!”

Milady was about to cry out “immediately,” but she reflected that such precipitation would not be very gracious toward D’Artagnan.

Besides, she had a thousand precautions to take, a thousand counsels to give to her defender, in order that he might avoid explanations with the count before witnesses. All this was answered by an expression of D’Artagnan’s.


  By PanEris using Melati.

Previous chapter/page Back Home Email this Search Discuss Bookmark Next chapter/page
Copyright: All texts on Bibliomania are © Bibliomania.com Ltd, and may not be reproduced in any form without our written permission. See our FAQ for more details.