lOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. 397
- To my own apartments," replied the latter, in his soft
and sad voice. We shall be sure to iind you there, then, if we should have anything to say to you?" "Yes, monsieur; but do you suppose it likely you will have something to say to me?" "How can T tell?" said Athos. "Yes, something fresh to console you with," said D'Ar- tagnan, pushing him toward the door. Kaoul, observing the perfect composure which marked every gesture of his two friends, quitted the comte's room, carrying away with him nothing but the individual feeling of his own particular distress. "Thank Heaven!" he said, "since that is the case, I need only think of myself." And wrapping himself in his cloak, in order to conceal from the passers-by in the streets his gloomy and sorrowful face, he quitted them, for the purpose of returning to his own rooms, as he had promised Porthos. The two friends watched the young man as he walked away with a feeling akin to pity; only each expressed it in a very different way. "Poor Raoul!" said Athos, sighing deeply. "Poor Raoul!" said D'Artagnan, shrugging his shoulders. CHAPTER LX. HEu! miser!
- TooR Eaoul!" had said Athos. "Poor Raoul!" had
said D'Artagnan; and, in point of fact, to be pitied by both these men Raoul must indeed have been most unhappy. And, therefore, when he found himself alone, face to face, as it were, with his own troubles, leaving behind him the intrepid friend and the indulgent father; when he called the avowal of the king's affection, which had robbed him of Louise de la Valliere, whom he loved so deeply, he felt his heart almost breaking, as indeed we all have at least once in our lives, at the first illusion destroyed, at our first affec- tion betrayed. "Oh!" he murmured, "all is over, then. Nothing is now left me in this world. Nothing to look for, nothing to hope for. De Guiche has told me so, my father has told me so, and Monsieur d'Artagnan likewise. Everything is a mere idle dream in this liie. That future, wmch I havS
