up to him as he was
singing a love ditty and looking tenderly at a lady, and interrupted him
exactly in the middle of the second couplet. 'Monsieur,' said I, 'does
it still displease you that I should frequent a certain house of La
Rue Payenne? And would you still cane me if I took it into my head to
disobey you? The officer looked at me with astonishment, and then said,
'What is your business with me, monsieur? I do not know you.' 'I am,'
said I, 'the little abbe who reads LIVES OF THE SAINTS, and translates
Judith into verse.' 'Ah, ah! I recollect now,' said the officer, in a
jeering tone; 'well, what do you want with me?' 'I want you to spare
time to take a walk with me.' 'Tomorrow morning, if you like, with
the greatest pleasure.' 'No, not tomorrow morning, if you please, but
immediately.' 'If you absolutely insist.' 'I do insist upon it.' 'Come,
then. Ladies,' said the officer, 'do not disturb yourselves; allow me
time just to kill this gentleman, and I will return and finish the last
couplet.'

"We went out. I took him to the Rue Payenne, to exactly the same
spot where, a year before, at the very same hour, he had paid me the
compliment I have related to you. It was a superb moonlight night. We
immediately drew, and at the first pass I laid him stark dead."

"The devil!" cried d'Artagnan.

"Now," continued Aramis, "as the ladies did not see the singer come
back, and as he was found in the Rue Payenne with a great sword wound
through his body, it was supposed that I had accommodated him thus; and
the matter created some scandal which obliged me to renounce the cassock
for a time. Athos, whose acquaintance I made about that period, and
Porthos, who had in addition to my lessons taught me some effective
tricks of fence, prevailed upon me to solicit the uniform of a
Musketeer. The king entertained great regard for my father, who had
fallen at the siege of Arras, and the uniform was granted. You may
understand that the moment has come for me to re-enter the bosom of the
Church."

"And why today, rather than yesterday or tomorrow? What has happened to
you today, to raise all these melancholy ideas?"

"This wound, my dear d'Artagnan, has been a warning to me from heaven."

"This wound? Bah, it is now nearly healed, and I am sure it is not that
which gives you the most pain."

"What, then?" said Aramis, blushing.

"You have one at heart, Aramis, one deeper and more painful--a wound
made by a woman."

The eye