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24 LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE. Who told you that, Porthos?" "The doctor. A sort of dome which would bear Notre Dame, at Paris.'* "Bah!" "Yes, it seems that our skulls are made in that manner." "Speak for yourself, my dear fellow, it is your own skull that is made in that manner, and not the skulls of other people." "Well, that may be so," said Porthos conceitedly, "so much, however, was that the case, in my instance, that no sooner did the luster fall upon the dome which we have at the top of our head than there was a report like a cannon, the crystal was broken to pieces, and I fell, covered from head to foot." "With blood, poor Porthos!" "Not at all; with perfumes, which smelled like rich creams; it was delicious, but the odor was too strong, and I felt quite giddy from it; perhaps you have experienced it sometimes yourself, D'Artagnan?" "Yes, in inhaling the scent of the lily of the valley; so that, my poor friend, you were knocked over by the shock and overpowered by the odor?" "Yes; but what is very remarkable, for the doctor told me he had never seen anything like it " "You had a bump on your head, I suppose?" interrupted D'Artagnan. "I had five." "Why five?" "I will tell you; the luster had, at its lower extremity, five gilt ornaments excessively sharp." "Oh!" "Well, these five ornaments penetrated my hair, which, as you see, I wear very thick." "Fortunately so." "And they made a mark on my skin. But just notice the singularity of it, these things seem really only to happen me. Instead of making indentations, they made bumps. The doctor could never succeed in explaining that to me satisfac- torily." "Well, then, I will explain it to you." "You will do me a great service ii you will," said Porthos, winking his eyes, which, with him, was a sign of the pro- foundest attention. "Since you have been employing your brain in studies of an exalted character, in important calculations, and so oziy