LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. 395
- And 80, Monsieur le Comte, you are quite satisfied that
the misfortune is without a remedy?** inquired the young man. "Poor boy!'* he murmured. "You think that I still live in hope,'* said Raoul, "and you pity me. Oh, it is indeed a horrible suffering for me to despise, as I ought to do, the one I have loved so devotedly. If I only had but some real cause of complaint against her, I should be happy, and should be able to forgive her." Athos looked at his son with a sorrowful air, for the lat- ter words which Raoul had Just pronounced seemed to have issued out of his own heart. At this moment the servant announced M. D'Artagnan. This name sounded very differently to the ears of Athos and of Raoul. The mus- keteer entered the room with a vague smile upon his lips. Raoul paused. Athos walked toward his friend with an expression of face which did not escape De Bragelonne. D'Artagnan answered Athos' look by an imperceptible movement of the eyelid; and then, advancing toward Raoul, whom he took by the hand, he said, addressing both father and son: "Well, you are trying to console this poor boy, it seems?'* "And you, kind and good, as usual, are come to help me in my difficult task." As he said this Athos pressed D'Artagnan's hand be- tween both his own. Raoul fancied he observed in this pressure something beyond the sense his mere words con- veyed. "Yes," replied the musketeer, smoothing his mustache with the hand that Athos had left free, "yes, I have come also." "You are most welcome, chevalier; not for the consola- tion you bring with you, but on your own account. I am already consoled," said Raoul; and he attempted to smile, but the effort was far more sad than any tears D'Artagnan had ever seen shed. "That is all well and good, then," said D'Artagnan. "Only," continued Raoul, "you have arrived just as the comte was about to give me the details of his interview with the king. You will allow the comte to continue?" added the young man, as, with his eyes fixed on the musketeer, he seemed to read into the very depths of his heart. "His interview with the king?" said D'Artagnan, in a tone so natural and unassumed that there was no means of suspecting that his astonishment was feigned. "You have fieen the kingj then, Athos?
