"Madame Truchen will remember you better if you leave her that ring,"
replied D'Artagnan, a suggestion which Porthos seemed to hesitate to
adopt.

"You think it is not beautiful enough, perhaps," said the musketeer. "I
understand your feelings; a great lord such as you would not think of
accepting the hospitality of an old servant without paying him most
handsomely for it: but I am sure that Planchet is too good-hearted a
fellow to remember that you have an income of a hundred thousand francs a
year."

"I have more than half a mind," said Porthos, flattered by the remark,
"to make Madame Truchen a present of my little farm at Bracieux; it has
twelve acres."

"It is too much, my good Porthos, too much just at present... Keep it
for a future occasion." He then took the ring off Porthos's finger, and
approaching Truchen, said to her: - "Madame, monsieur le baron hardly
knows how to entreat you, out of your regard for him, to accept this
little ring. M. du Vallon is one of the most generous and discreet men
of my acquaintance. He wished to offer you a farm that he has at
Bracieux, but I dissuaded him from it."

"Oh!" said Truchen, looking eagerly at the diamond.

"Monsieur le baron!" exclaimed Planchet, quite overcome.

"My good friend," stammered out Porthos, delighted at having been so well
represented by D'Artagnan. These several exclamations, uttered at the
same moment, made quite a pathetic winding-up of a day which might have