do you want?"

"Give me your opinion on quarrels in general, my dear friend."

"My opinion! Well--but--Explain your idea a little more coherently,"
replied Porthos, rubbing his forehead.

"I mean--you are generally good-humored, good-tempered, whenever any
misunderstanding arises between a friend of yours and a stranger, for
instance?"

"Oh! in the best of tempers."

"Very good; but what do you do, in such a case?"

"Whenever any friend of mine gets into a quarrel, I always act on one
principle."

"What is that?"

"That lost time is irreparable, and one never arranges an affair so well
as when everything has been done to embroil the disputants as much as
possible."

"Ah! indeed, is that the principle on which you proceed?"

"Precisely; so, as soon as a quarrel takes place, I bring the two
parties together."

"Exactly."

"You understand that by this means it is impossible for an affair not to
be arranged."

"I should have thought that, treated in this manner, an affair would, on
the contrary--"

"Oh! not the least in the world. Just fancy, now, I have had in my life
something like a hundred and eighty to a hundred and ninety regular
duels, without reckoning hasty encounters, or chance meetings."

"It is a very handsome aggregate," said Raoul, unable to resist a smile.

"A mere nothing; but I am so gentle. D'Artagnan reckons his duels by
hundreds. It is very true he is a little too hard and sharp--I have
often told him so."

"And so," resumed Raoul, "you generally arrange the affairs of honor
your friends confide to you."

"There is not a single instance in which I have not finished by
arranging every one of them," said Porthos, with a gentleness and
confidence that surprised Raoul.

"But the way in which you settle them is at least honorable, I suppose?"

"Oh! rely upon that; and at this stage, I will explain my other
principle to you. As soon as my friend has intrusted his quarrel to
me, this is what I do; I go to his adversary at once, armed with
a politeness and self-possession absolutely requisite under such
circumstances."

"That is the way, then," said Raoul, bitterly, "that you arrange affairs
so safely."

"I believe you. I go to the adversary, then, and say to him: 'It is
impossible, monsieur, that you are ignorant of the extent to which you
have insulted my friend.'" Raoul frowned at this remark.

"It sometimes happens--very often, indeed," pursued Porthos--"that my
friend has n