In Which the Equipment of Aramis and Porthos Is Treated of — The Three Musketeers

The four dine apart while each hunts equipment, and meet once a week at Athos's because he will not cross his threshold. D'Artagnan finds Athos and Aramis talking. Aramis leans toward the cassock. Porthos arrives tranquil, hints a lady of rank is funding him, and follows Mousqueton out. A mendicant from Tours is named; Aramis runs. Athos tells D'Artagnan the English pistoles would have weighed on him like remorse. The Gascon says he courts the Englishwoman because she had a hand in Madame Bonacieux's abduction. He hides the rest. Athos is too strict on honour.

At home the ragged man asks for an embroidered handkerchief. Aramis shows it from the ebony box and sends Bazin out. A letter and a hundred and fifty Spanish double pistoles come from the ripped doublet. The letter tells him to serve in camp and think of the woman who kisses his black eyes. The postscript names the beggar a Spanish grandee. Aramis cries that they are young and kisses the letter without looking at the gold. When D'Artagnan jokes about prunes from Tours, Aramis claims a publisher paid for a poem. The letter peeps; he blushes. The cassock is forgotten. He offers Burgundy.

They meet Mousqueton driving D'Artagnan's old yellow horse and a sorry mule. The Gascon names the beast he sold for three crowns. A husband has swapped the promised genet and Andalusian mule. Mousqueton ties both to the procurator's knocker. Madame Coquenard knows her present. Porthos refuses dinner and waits in the cloister of Saint Magloire, pouring out wounded pride. She bought a horsedealer's debt cheap. He says people who buy cheap should let others seek more generous friends. She offers the evening: Monsieur Coquenard consults the Duc de Chaulnes for three hours; they can make up their accounts alone. Porthos walks away sure he is nearer the strongbox.