D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 259: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

242 His Own Host. scent of unknown source titillated his nostrils, “this is —is what? A Turk water-pipe, inseparable from all re- spectable siestas. That poor D’Artagnan, setting up as a philosopher and tripping after lovelight on those scorching streets! with this dessert neglected! That pipe smells good, and the amber cools the mouth! ‘This is the way a warrior is chastened into a sybarite! I shall return to my lady, asking for only a stuffed-back chair and a footstool, to munch roast chestnuts and crab-apples swum in hot sherry! St. Pantaloon the Shuffling will be my patron.” Then he looked up with pretended horror. ‘He had forgot to say grace! “The sharp stomach makes short grace!” sighed he, apologetically. “I was wishing D’Artagnan here—l withdraw the desire! he would have blighted all. Don't tell me! He would have soured the junkets by crying at each glass: ‘To the bride that I shall have!’ And he would have prayed to have his Jacinta, over there! As if I pray to have Madame du Vallon play the spoil- sport here! Still, were she here, I know how a fond husband should behave—luxuriously—the Lord forgive me, uxoriously, is what I mean! “Wadame,” continued he, filling up two glasses with some unsteadiness, “allow me to offer you some pome- granite-ade—infallible for dispelling the megrims!” He drank off his, and he drank “hers.” “But why these little trifling glasses for cordials? best of the set-out! What blockhead was he who had the whim at the first to offer the thin wine in goblets and © the syrups in thimbles? When I am a high official at the new Court, I will, by this flask, alter it.” He shoved his chair back, but had not the force to rise. “Faith, I have fairly broken my fast—I can wait till dinner!” After a pause, during which the lighted pipe continued to exhale its aroma, curiosity lent him the strength to make the effort to get up. He did so, and, trailing the pipe stem, found in the recess, a pile of cushions on which he sank like a pasha. ‘Never have I smoked a boa-constrictor of a pipe like Eomicbookssco a ee eee amt aS” |. Se le /; - — - ~ ——), hai’ me