obliging any fresh ones. And so Percerin declined to fit bourgeois, or those who had but recently obtained patents of nobility. A story used to circulate that even M, de Mazarin, in exchange for Percerin supplying him with a full suit of ceremonial vestments as cardinal, one fine day slipped letters of nobility into his pocket.
It was to the house of this great lord of tailors that D'Artagnan took the despairing Porthos; who, as they were going along, said to his friend:
"Take care, my good D'Artagnan, not to compromise the dignity of a man such as I am with the arrogance of this Percerin, who will, I expect, be very impertinent; for I give you notice, my friend, that if he is wanting in respect to me I will chastise him."
"Presented by me," replied Artagnan, "you have nothing to fear, even though you were what you are not."
"Ah! 'tis because———"
"What? Have you anything against Percerin, Porthos?"
"I think that I once sent Mouston to a fellow of that name."
"And then?"
"The fellow refused to supply me."
"Oh, a misunderstanding, no doubt, which 'tis pressing to set right. Mouston must have made a mistake."
"Perhaps."
"He has confused the names."
"Possibly. That rascal Mouston never can remember names."
"I will take it all upon myself."
"Very good."
"Stop the carriage, Porthos; here we are."
"Here! how here? We are at the Halles; and you told me the house was at the corner of the Rue de l'Arbre Sec."
"'Tis true; but look."
"Well, I do look, and I see———"
"What?"
"Pardieu! that we are at the Halles."
"You do not, I suppose, want our horses to clamber up on the top of the carriage in front of us."
"No."
"Nor the carriage in front of us to mount on the one in front of it. Nor that the second should be driven over the roofs of the thirty or forty others which have arrived before us?"
"No, you are right, indeed. What a number of people. And what are they all about?"
