laughing. Those were times in which everybody traveled, but
in which, notwithstanding, a journey of a hundred leagues was a problem
often solved by death.

"From the land of oranges?" cried Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente. "From
Spain?"

"Eh! eh!" said the musketeer.

"From Malta?" echoed Montalais.

"_Ma foi!_ You are coming very near, ladies."

"Is it an island?" asked La Valliere.

"Mademoiselle," said D'Artagnan; "I will not give you the trouble of
seeking any further; I come from the country where M. de Beaufort is, at
this moment, embarking for Algiers."

"Have you seen the army?" asked several warlike fair ones.

"As plainly as I see you," replied D'Artagnan.

"And the fleet?"

"Yes, I saw everything."

"Have we any of us any friends there?" said Mademoiselle de
Tonnay-Charente, coldly, but in a manner to attract attention to a
question that was not without its calculated aim.

"Why," replied D'Artagnan, "yes; there were M. de la Guillotiere, M. de
Manchy, M. de Bragelonne--"

La Valliere became pale. "M. de Bragelonne!" cried the perfidious
Athenais. "Eh, what!--is he gone to the wars?--he!"

Montalais trod on her toe, but all in vain.

"Do you know what my opinion is?" continued she, addressing D'Artagnan.

"No, mademoiselle; but I should like very much to know it."

"My opinion is, then, that all the men who go to this war are desperate,
desponding men, whom love has treated ill; and who go to try if they
cannot find jet-complexioned women more kind than fair ones have been."

Some of the ladies laughed; La Valliere was evidently confused;
Montalais coughed loud enough to waken the dead.

"Mademoiselle," interrupted D'Artagnan, "you are in error when you speak
of black women at Gigelli; the women there have not jet faces; it is
true they are not white--they are yellow."

"Yellow!" exclaimed the bevy of fair beauties.

"Eh! do not disparage it. I have never seen a finer color to match with
black eyes and a coral mouth."

"So much the better for M. de Bragelonne," said Mademoiselle de
Tonnay-Charente, with persistent malice. "He will make amends for his
loss. Poor fellow!"

A profound silence followed these words; and D'Artagnan had time to
observe and reflect that women--mild doves--treat each other more
cruelly than tigers. But making La Valliere pale did not satisfy
Athenais; she determined to make her blush likewise. Resuming the
conversation without pause, "Do you know, Louise