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This method was so simple that d'Artagnan employed it quite naturally and instinctively. But at the sight of the young man, who detached himself from the wall like a statue walking from its niche, and at the noise of the steps which she heard resound behind her, Mme. Bonacieux uttered a little cry and fled. D'Artagnan ran after her.
Through the closely fastened windows the prisoner could perceive the houses and the pavement, that was all; but, true Parisian as he was, Bonacieux could recognize every street by the milestones, the signs, and the lamps. At the moment of arriving at St. Paul the spot where such as were condemned at the Bastille were executed he was near fainting and crossed himself twice.
Since his first arrival at Paris, he had had constant occasion to honor this excellent man, whom he had always found worthy, loyal, and great. His first visit was to Aramis, at whose residence he had not been since the famous evening on which he had followed Mme. Bonacieux.
And that is a mousetrap. The apartment of M. Bonacieux, then, became a mousetrap; and whoever appeared there was taken and interrogated by the cardinal's people. It must be observed that as a separate passage led to the first floor, in which d'Artagnan lodged, those who called on him were exempted from this detention.
His head, supported by a long and flexible neck, issued from his large black robe, balancing itself with a motion very much like that of the tortoise thrusting his head out of his shell. He began by asking M. Bonacieux his name, age, condition, and abode.
"Eh, eh!" said Bonacieux, slapping a plump, round bag, which returned a sound a money; "what do you think of this, Madame Preacher?" "Whence comes that money?" "You do not guess?" "From the cardinal?" "From him, and from my friend the Comte de Rochefort." "The Comte de Rochefort! Why it was he who carried me off!" "That may be, madame!" "And you receive silver from that man?"
Almost instantly a female head was put out at the window, with two fingers placed upon her mouth, either to enjoin silence or to send him a kiss. D'Artagnan uttered a slight cry of joy; this woman, or rather this apparition for the carriage passed with the rapidity of a vision was Mme. Bonacieux.
It must, however, be confessed in his justification that the first use he made of his influence over Kitty was to try and find out what had become of Mme. Bonacieux; but the poor girl swore upon the crucifix to d'Artagnan that she was entirely ignorant on that head, her mistress never admitting her into half her secrets only she believed she could say she was not dead.
Bonacieux and if she was returning to Paris, why this fugitive rendezvous, why this simple exchange of a glance, why this lost kiss? If, on the other side, it was not she which was still quite possible for the little light that remained rendered a mistake easy might it not be the commencement of some plot against him through the allurement of this woman, for whom his love was known?
"No; what I say," replied Bonacieux, "is only that I may know whether I am delaying you." "Why that question, my dear host?" asked d'Artagnan. "Do you intend to sit up for me?" "No; but since my arrest and the robbery that was committed in my house, I am alarmed every time I hear a door open, particularly in the night. What the deuce can you expect? I am no swordsman."
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