just pronounced."

"What?"

"You shall see: it concerned a loan. The borrower gives me
in pledge some raw sugars, on condition that I should sell
if repayment were not made within a fixed period. I lend a
thousand livres. He does not pay me and I sell the sugars
for thirteen hundred livres. He learns this and claims a
hundred crowns. Ma foi! I refused, pretending that I could
not sell them for more than nine hundred livres. He accused
me of usury. I begged him to repeat that word to me behind
the boulevards. He was an old guard, and he came: and I
passed your sword through his left thigh."

"Tu dieu! what a pretty sort of banker you make!" said
D'Artagnan.

"For above thirteen per cent. I fight," replied Planchet;
"that is my character."

"Take only twelve," said D'Artagnan, "and call the rest
premium and brokerage."

"You are right, monsieur; but to your business."

"Ah! Planchet, it is very long and very hard to speak."

"Do speak it, nevertheless."