Part 9 (1/2)
”Consider --for I used to feed hiood hand myself, monsieur,” said Mouston, hu, I perceived Mouston was obliged to squeeze in, as I once did h the little secret door that those fools of architects had made in the chamber of the late Madame du Vallon, in the chateau of Pierrefonds And, by the way, about that door, , why these wretches of architects, who ought to have the compasses run into theh which nobody but thin people can pass?”
”Oh, those doors,” answered D'Artagnan, ”were ht and slender figures”
”Madaallant!” answered Porthos, majestically
”Perfectly true, nan; ”but the architects were probablytheir calculations on a basis of the probability of your ain”
”Ah! that is possible,” said Porthos ”And now I have received an explanation of how it is that doorways are made too narrow, let us return to the subject of Mouston's fatness But see how the two things apply to each other I have always noticed that people's ideas run parallel And so, observe this pheno to you of Mouston, who is fat, and it led us on to Madame du Vallon--”
”Who was thin?”
”Hum! Is it not marvelous?”
”My dear friend, a _savant_ of my acquaintance, M Costar, has made the same observation as you have, and he calls the process by soet”
”What! inal?” cried Porthos, astounded ”I thought I was the discoverer”
”My friend, the fact was known before Aristotle's days--that is to say, nearly two thousand years ago”
”Well, well, 'tis no less true,” said Porthos, delighted at the idea of having jureatest sages of antiquity
”Wonderfully--but suppose we return to Mouston It see under our very eyes”
”Yes, monsieur,” said Mouston
”Well,” said Porthos, ”Mouston fattened so well, that he gratified allmy standard; a fact of which I ell able to convincethe rascal, one day, in a waistcoat of mine, which he had turned into a coat--a waistcoat, the mere embroidery of which orth a hundred pistoles”
”'Twas only to try it on, monsieur,” said Mouston
”From that moment I determined to put Mouston in communication with my tailors, and to have him measured instead of myself”
”A capital idea, Porthos; but Mouston is a foot and a half shorter than you”
”Exactly! They round, and the end of the skirt came just below my knee”
”What acould happen only to you”
”Ah! yes; pay your coo upon It was exactly at that tio--that I set out for Belle-Isle, instructing Mouston (so as always to have, in every event, a pattern of every fashi+on) to have a coat lect coht, Mouston”
”No, monsieur, quite the contrary; quite the contrary!”