THE MAN IN THE lEOK MASK. 37

day of your death, without being obliged to see the nose of a single tailor from now till then. Porthos shook his head.

• 'Come, my friend/' said D'Artagnan, **this unnatural

melancholy in you frightens me. My dear Porthos, pray get out of it then. And the sooner the better."

• 'Yes, my friend, so I will; if, indeed, it is possible."
  • Perhaps you have received bad news from Bracieui?"
  • No; they have felled the wood, and it has yielded a third

more than the estimate."

• • Then has there been a falling off in the pools of Pierre^

fonds?"

• 'No, my friend; they have been fished, and there is

enough left to stock all the pools in the neighborhood."

• • Perhaps your estate at Vallon has been destroyed by an

earthquake?"

• • No, my friend; on the contrary, the ground was struck

with lightning a hundred paces from the chdteau, and a fountain sprung up in a place entirely destitute of water."

• 'What in the world is the matter, then?"
• 'The fact is, I have received an invitation for the fete at

Vaux," said Porthos, with a lugubrious expression.

• ^Well, do you complain of that? The king has caused a

hundred mortal heart-burnings among the courtiers by re- fusing invitations. And so, my dear friend, you are really going to Vaux?"

• 'Indeed I am!"
  • You will see a magnificent sight."
• 'Alas! I doubt it, though."
• 'Everything that is grand in France will be brought to-

gether there."

• • Ah!" cried Porthos, tearing out a lock of his hair in

despair.

• 'Eh! good heavens, are you ill?" cried D'Artagnan.
  • I am as well as the Pont-Neuf. It isn't that."

"But what is it, then?" " 'Tis that I have no clothes." D'Artagnan stood petrified.

• • No clothes! Porthos, no clothes!" he cried, **when I

see at least fifty suits on the fioor." "Fifty, truly; but not one which fits me." "What, not one that fits you? But are you not measured, then, when yon give an order?'* "To be sure he is," answered Moustonj **but, unfor- tunately, /have grown stouter!'

]f*