oll affair!"

And in spite of himself, the young man began to laugh aloud, looking
round carefully, however, to see that his solitary laugh, without a
cause in the eyes of passers-by, offended no one.

"As to Porthos, that is certainly droll; but I am not the less a giddy
fool. Are people to be run against without warning? No! And have I any
right to go and peep under their cloaks to see what is not there? He
would have pardoned me, he would certainly have pardoned me, if I had
not said anything to him about that cursed baldric--in ambiguous words,
it is true, but rather drolly ambiguous. Ah, cursed Gascon that I am,
I get from one hobble into another. Friend d'Artagnan," continued he,
speaking to himself with all the amenity that he thought due himself,
"if you escape, of which there is not much chance, I would advise you
to practice perfect politeness for the future. You must henceforth be
admired and quoted as a model of it. To be obliging and polite does not
necessarily make a man a coward. Look at Aramis, now; Aramis is mildness
and grace personified. Well, did anybody ever dream of calling Aramis a
coward? No, certainly not, and from this moment I will endeavor to model
myself after him. Ah! That's strange! Here he is!"

D'Artagnan, walking and soliloquizing, had arrived within a few steps
of the hotel d'Arguillon and in front of that hotel perceived Aramis,
chatting gaily with three gentlemen; but as he had not forgotten that it
was in presence of this young man that M. de Treville had been so
angry in the morning, and as a witness of the rebuke the Musketeers had
received was not likely to be at all agreeable, he pretended not to
see him. D'Artagnan, on the contrary, quite full of his plans of
conciliation and courtesy, approached the young men with a profound bow,
accompanied by a most gracious smile. All four, besides, immediately
broke off their conversation.

D'Artagnan was not so dull as not to perceive that he was one too many;
but he was not sufficiently broken into the fashions of the gay world to
know how to extricate himself gallantly from a false position, like that
of a man who begins to mingle with people he is scarcely acquainted with
and in a conversation that does not concern him. He was seeking in his
mind, then, for the least awkward means of retreat, when he remarked
that Aramis had let his handkerchief fall, and by mistake, no doubt, had
placed his foot upon it. This appeared to be a favor