8 LOUISE DE LA VALLIERB.
- 'Very likely not, monsieur. I had a present made me of
it/* said Planchet; and as he pronounced these words he winked his eye with a cunning expression which thoroughly awakened D'Artagnan's attention. "Come, come, Monsieur Planchet." "Why, I am not like you, monsieur," said Plancheto "I don't pass my life in thinking." "You are Avroug, then." "I mean in boring myself to death. We have but a very short time to live — why not make the best of it?" "You are an Epicurean philosopher, I begin to think, Planchet." "Why not? My hand is still as steady as ever; I can write, and can weigh out my sugar and spices; my foot is firm; I can dance and walk about; my stomach has its teeth still, for I eat and digest well; my heart is not quite hard- ened. Well, monsieur?" "Well, what, Planchet?" "Why, you see — " said the grocer, rubbing his hands together. D'Artagnan crossed one leg over the other, and said: "Planchet, my friend, I am astounded by surprise, for you are revealing yourself to me under a perfectly new light." Planchet, flattered in the highest degree by this remark, continued to rub his hands very hard together. "Ah, ah!" he said, "because I happen to be only stupid, you think me, perhaps, a positive fool." "Very good, Planchet; very well reasoned." "Follow my idea, monsieur, if you please. I said to my- self," continued Planchet, "that, without enjoyment, there is no happiness on this earth." "Quite true, what you say, Planchet," interrupted D'Artagnan. "At all events, if we cannot obtain pleasure — for pleasure is not so common a thing, after all — let us, at least, get consolations of some kind or other. " "And so you console yourself?" "Exactly so." "Tell me how you console yourself." "I put on a buckler for the purpose of confronting ennui. I place my time at the direction of patience; and on the very eve of feeling I am going to get bored, I amuse my- "And you don't find any difficulty in that?"
