! PESTE! You seem to reverse ordinary customs, and
come home at the hour when other people are going out."

"No one can reproach you for anything of the kind, Monsieur Bonacieux,"
said the young man; "you are a model for regular people. It is true that
when a man possesses a young and pretty wife, he has no need to seek
happiness elsewhere. Happiness comes to meet him, does it not, Monsieur
Bonacieux?"

Bonacieux became as pale as death, and grinned a ghastly smile.

"Ah, ah!" said Bonacieux, "you are a jocular companion! But where the
devil were you gladding last night, my young master? It does not appear
to be very clean in the crossroads."

D'Artagnan glanced down at his boots, all covered with mud; but that
same glance fell upon the shoes and stockings of the mercer, and it
might have been said they had been dipped in the same mud heap. Both
were stained with splashes of mud of the same appearance.

Then a sudden idea crossed the mind of d'Artagnan. That little stout
man, short and elderly, that sort of lackey, dressed in dark clothes,
treated without ceremony by the men wearing swords who composed the
escort, was Bonacieux himself. The husband had presided at the abduction
of his wife.

A terrible inclination seized d'Artagnan to grasp the mercer by the
throat and strangle him; but, as we have said, he was a very prudent
youth, and he restrained himself. However, the revolution which appeared
upon his countenance was so visible that Bonacieux was terrified at it,
and he endeavored to draw back a step or two; but as he was standing
before the half of the door which was shut, the obstacle compelled him
to keep his place.

"Ah, but you are joking, my worthy man!" said d'Artagnan. "It appears
to me that if my boots need a sponge, your stockings and shoes stand in
equal need of a brush. May you not have been philandering a little also,
Monsieur Bonacieux? Oh, the devil! That's unpardonable in a man of your
age, and who besides, has such a pretty wife as yours."

"Oh, Lord! no," said Bonacieux, "but yesterday I went to St. Mande to
make some inquiries after a servant, as I cannot possibly do without
one; and the roads were so bad that I brought back all this mud, which I
have not yet had time to remove."

The place named by Bonacieux as that which had been the object of his
journey was a fresh proof in support of the suspicions d'Artagnan had
conceived. Bonacieux had named Mande because Mande was in an exactly