438 LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE.
- 'No, not visits. Visits are not frequent at the Bastile."
- What, are visits rare, then?'*
"Very much so."
- Even on the part of your society?"
"What do you term by my society — the prisoners?"
- 0h, no! your prisoners, indeed! I know well it is you
who visit them, and not they you. By your society I mean, my dear Monsieur Baisemeaux, the society of which you are a member." Baisemeaux looked fixedly at Aramis, and then, as if the idea which had flashed across his mind were impossible: "Oh," he said, "I have very little society at present. If I must own it to you, dear Monsieur d'Herblay, the fact is, to stay at the Bastile appears, for the most part, distressing and distasteful to persons of the gay world. As for the ladies, it is never without a dread, which costs me infinite trouble to allay, that they succeed in reaching my quarters. And, indeed, how should they avoid trembling a little, poor things, when they see those gloomy dungeons, and reflect that they are inhabited by prisoners who " And in proportion as the eyes of Baisemeaux concen- trated their gaze on the face of Aramis, the worthy gover- nor's tongue faltered more and more, until it ended by stopping altogether. "No, you don't understand me, my dear Monsieur Baise- meaux; you don't understand me. I do not at all mean to speak of society in general, but of a particular society — of the society, in a word — to which you are affiliated." Baisemeaux nearly dropped the glass of muscat which he was in the act of raising to his lips. "Affiliated!" cried he, "affiliated!" "Yes, affiliated, undoubtedly," repeated Aramis, with the greatest self-possession. "Are you not a member of a secret society, my dear Monsieur Baisemeaux?" "Secret?" "Secret or mysterious." "Oh, Monsieur d'Herblay!" "Consider now; don't deny it.'*
- 'But believe me."
"I believe what I know." "I swear to you." "Listen to me, my dear Monsieur Baisemeaux; I say yes, you say no; one of us two necessarily says what is true, and the other, it inevitably follows, what is false.*' "Well, and then?"
