Page:Louise de la Valliere text.djvu/30

"You would not have run away from Vannes as you did, perhaps?"

"No; what did you say when you couldn't find me?"

"My dear fellow, I reflected."

"Ah, indeed; you reflect, do you? Well, and what has that reflection led to?"

"It led me to guess the whole truth."

"Come, then, tell me, what did you guess, after all?" said Porthos, settling himself into an armchair, and assuming the airs of a sphinx.

"I guessed, in the first place, that you were fortifying Belle-Isle."

"There was no great difficulty in that, for you saw me at work."

"Wait a minute. I also guessed something else—that you were fortifying Belle-Isle by Monsieur Fouquet's orders."

"That's true."

"But not all. Whenever I feel myself in train for guessing, I do not stop on my road; and so I guessed that Monsieur Fouquet wished to preserve the most absolute secrecy respecting these fortifications."

"I believe that was his intention, in fact," said Porthos.

"Yes; but do you know why he wished to keep it secret?"

"Because it should not be known, perhaps," said Porthos.

"That was his principal reason. But his wish was subservient to an affair of generosity———"

"In fact," said Porthos, "I have heard it said that Monsieur Fouquet was a very generous man."

"To an affair of generosity which he wished to exhibit toward the king."

"Oh, oh!"

"You seem surprised at it?"

"Yes."

"And you did not know that?"

"No."

"Well, I know it, then."

"You're a wizard."

"Not in the slightest degree."

"How do you know it, then?"

"By a very simple means. I heard Monsieur Fouquet himself say so to the king."

"Say what to the king?"

"That he had fortified Belle-Isle on his majesty's account, and that he made him a present of Belle-Isle."

"And you heard Monsieur Fouquet say that to the king?" {[nop}}