The Interior of the Musketeers — The Three Musketeers

Once outside the Louvre, D'Artagnan asks what to do with his share of the forty pistoles. Athos names a supper at the Pomme-de-Pin, Porthos a lackey, and Aramis a mistress. The supper happens that day. Porthos has picked up a Picard named Planchet on the Bridge Tournelle and, already owning Mousqueton, gives the new man to D'Artagnan. Planchet's hopes rise when he sees a handful of gold at dinner and fall when he makes the only bed in a two-room lodging. The chapter then opens the three households: Athos and silent Grimaud in the Rue Férou, with a jewelled sword he will not lend even to Porthos; Porthos and Mousqueton in rooms that look rich from the street; Aramis and devout Bazin in a ground-floor lodging that looks onto a closed garden.

D'Artagnan tries to learn who they really are. Porthos knows almost nothing of Athos except a rumour of treachery in love. Aramis, pressed about an embroidered handkerchief, says a friend forgot it, that he is a Musketeer against his will and a churchman at heart, and that he must go repeat a breviary, write verses, and buy rouge for Madame de Chevreuse. Money habits surface next. Athos pays gambling debts at dawn and never borrows. Porthos vanishes when he loses and returns thinner, with coin. Aramis never plays.

When the gold thins, Planchet complains. D'Artagnan beats him, forbids him to leave, and tells him the future cannot fail to mend. The four fall into one life. They hunt one another from the Luxembourg to St. Sulpice. D'Artagnan does Musketeer duty without the coat. One morning the king admits him as a cadet in Dessessart's Guards, with a promise of the Musketeers after two years or a brilliant action. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis begin to mount guard with him, so the company receives four men instead of one.