nsidered himself at Paris as on a campaign, neither more nor
less than if he had been in Flanders--Spain yonder, woman here. In each
there was an enemy to contend with, and contributions to be levied.

But, we must say, at the present moment d'Artagnan was ruled by a
feeling much more noble and disinterested. The mercer had said that he
was rich; the young man might easily guess that with so weak a man as M.
Bonacieux; and interest was almost foreign to this commencement of love,
which had been the consequence of it. We say ALMOST, for the idea that
a young, handsome, kind, and witty woman is at the same time rich takes
nothing from the beginning of love, but on the contrary strengthens it.

There are in affluence a crowd of aristocratic cares and caprices which
are highly becoming to beauty. A fine and white stocking, a silken robe,
a lace kerchief, a pretty slipper on the foot, a tasty ribbon on the
head do not make an ugly woman pretty, but they make a pretty woman
beautiful, without reckoning the hands, which gain by all this; the
hands, among women particularly, to be beautiful must be idle.

Then d'Artagnan, as the reader, from whom we have not concealed the
state of his fortune, very well knows--d'Artagnan was not a millionaire;
he hoped to become one someday, but the time which in his own mind
he fixed upon for this happy change was still far distant. In the
meanwhile, how disheartening to see the woman one loves long for those
thousands of nothings which constitute a woman's happiness, and be
unable to give her those thousands of nothings. At least, when the woman
is rich and the lover is not, that which he cannot offer she offers to
herself; and although it is generally with her husband's money that she
procures herself this indulgence, the gratitude for it seldom reverts to
him.

Then d'Artagnan, disposed to become the most tender of lovers, was
at the same time a very devoted friend, In the midst of his amorous
projects for the mercer's wife, he did not forget his friends. The
pretty Mme. Bonacieux was just the woman to walk with in the Plain St.
Denis or in the fair of St. Germain, in company with Athos, Porthos, and
Aramis, to whom d'Artagnan had often remarked this. Then one could enjoy
charming little dinners, where one touches on one side the hand of a
friend, and on the other the foot of a mistress. Besides, on pressing
occasions, in extreme difficulties, d'Artagnan would become the
preserver of his