[The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas]@TWC D-Link bookThe Three Musketeers 28 THE RETURN 22/24
I have ordered Masses for myself, and for you, gentlemen, which will be said, gentlemen, for which I have not the least doubt you will be marvelously benefited." "And I," said Porthos, "do you think my strain cost me nothing ?--without reckoning Mousqueton's wound, for which I had to have the surgeon twice a day, and who charged me double on account of that foolish Mousqueton having allowed himself a ball in a part which people generally only show to an apothecary; so I advised him to try never to get wounded there any more." "Ay, ay!" said Athos, exchanging a smile with d'Artagnan and Aramis, "it is very clear you acted nobly with regard to the poor lad; that is like a good master." "In short," said Porthos, "when all my expenses are paid, I shall have, at most, thirty crowns left." "And I about ten pistoles," said Aramis. "Well, then it appears that we are the Croesuses of the society.
How much have you left of your hundred pistoles, d'Artagnan ?" "Of my hundred pistoles? Why, in the first place I gave you fifty." "You think so ?" "PARDIEU!" "Ah, that is true.
I recollect." "Then I paid the host six." "What a brute of a host! Why did you give him six pistoles ?" "You told me to give them to him." "It is true; I am too good-natured.
In brief, how much remains ?" "Twenty-five pistoles," said d'Artagnan. "And I," said Athos, taking some small change from his pocket, "I--" "You? Nothing!" "My faith! So little that it is not worth reckoning with the general stock." "Now, then, let us calculate how much we posses in all." "Porthos ?" "Thirty crowns." "Aramis ?" "Ten pistoles." "And you, d'Artagnan ?" "Twenty-five." "That makes in all ?" said Athos. "Four hundred and seventy-five livres," said d'Artagnan, who reckoned like Archimedes. "On our arrival in Paris, we shall still have four hundred, besides the harnesses," said Porthos. "But our troop horses ?" said Aramis. "Well, of the four horses of our lackeys we will make two for the masters, for which we will draw lots.
With the four hundred livres we will make the half of one for one of the unmounted, and then we will give the turnings out of our pockets to d'Artagnan, who has a steady hand, and will go and play in the first gaming house we come to.
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