Now, do you find the business good, and the investment advantageous ?" "Too much so--too much so." "How can that be ?" "Because fine things never reach the expected point." "This is infallible, Planchet, and the proof is that I undertake it.

It will be for you a tolerably pretty gain, and for me a very interesting stroke.

It will be said, 'Such was the old age of M.d'Artagnan,' and I shall hold a place in tales and even in history itself, Planchet.

I am greedy of honor." "Monsieur," cried Planchet, "when I think that it is here, in my home, in the midst of my sugar, my prunes, and my cinnamon, that this gigantic project is ripened, my shop seems a palace to me." "Beware, beware, Planchet! If the least report of this escapes, there is the Bastile for both of us.

Beware, my friend, for this is a plot we are hatching.