“And I straight to my partner’s.”
“To Planchet’s?”
“Yes; at the Pilon d’Or.”
“Well, but shall we not meet again?”
“If you remain in Paris, yes, for I shall stay here.”
“No: after having embraced Raoul, with whom I have appointed
a meeting at my hotel, I shall set out immediately for La
Fere.”
“Well, adieu, then, dear and true friend.”
“Au revoir! I should rather say, for why can you not come
and live with me at Blois? You are free, you are rich, I
shall purchase for you, if you like, a handsome estate in
the vicinity of Chiverny or of Bracieux. On the one side you
will have the finest woods in the world, which join those of
Chambord; on the other, admirable marshes. You who love
sporting, and who, whether you admit it or not, are a poet,
my dear friend, you will find pheasants, rail and teal,
without counting sunsets and excursions on the water, to
make you fancy yourself Nimrod and Apollo themselves. While
awaiting the purchase, you can live at La Fere, and we shall
go together to fly our hawks among the vines, as Louis XIII.
used to do. That is a quiet amusement for old fellows like
us.”
D’Artagnan took the hands of Athos in his own. “Dear count,”
said he, “I shall say neither `Yes’ nor `No.’ Let me pass in
Paris the time necessary for the regulation of my affairs,
and accustom myself, by degrees, to the heavy and glittering
idea which is beating in my brain and dazzles me. I am rich,
you see, and from this moment until the time when I shall
have acquired the habit of being rich, I know myself, and I
shall be an insupportable animal. Now, I am not enough of a
fool to wish to appear to have lost my wits before a friend
like you, Athos. The cloak is handsome, the cloak is richly
gilded, but it is new, and does not seem to fit me.”
Athos smiled. “So be it,” said he. “But a propos of this
cloak, dear D’Artagnan, will you allow me to offer you a
little advice?”
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Dumas, Alexandre – Ten Years Later
“Yes, willingly.”
“You will not be angry?”
“Proceed.”
“When wealth comes to a man late in life or all at once,
that man, in order not to change, must most likely become a
miser — that is to say, not spend much more money than he
had done before; or else become a prodigal, and contract so
many debts as to become poor again.”
“Oh! but what you say looks very much like a sophism, my
dear philosophic friend.”
“I do not think so. Will you become a miser?”
“No, pardieu! I was one already, having nothing. Let us
change.”
“Then be prodigal.”
“Still less, Mordioux! Debts terrify me. Creditors appear to
me, by anticipation like those devils who turn the damned
upon the gridirons, and as patience is not my dominant
virtue, I am always tempted to thrash those devils.”
“You are the wisest man I know, and stand in no need of
advice from any one. Great fools must they be who think they
have anything to teach you. But are we not at the Rue Saint
Honore?”
“Yes, dear Athos.”
“Look yonder, on the left, that small, long white house is
the hotel where I lodge. You may observe that it has but two
stories; I occupy the first; the other is let to an officer
whose duties oblige him to be absent eight or nine months in
the year, — so I am in that house as in my own home,
without the expense.”
“Oh! how well you manage, Athos! What order and what
liberality! They are what I wish to unite! But, of what use
trying! that comes from birth, and cannot be acquired.”
“You are a flatterer! Well! adieu, dear friend. A propos,
remember me to Master Planchet; he was always a bright
fellow.”
“And a man of heart, too, Athos. Adieu.”
And they separated. During all this conversation, D’Artagnan
had not for a moment lost sight of a certain pack-horse, in
whose panniers, under some hay, were spread the sacoches
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