“Without reckoning that on the other side of the partition was a small table laden with porcelain — ”

“Which you knocked over?”

“Which I dashed to the other side of the room,” said Porthos, laughing.

“Upon my word, it is, as you say, astonishing,” replied D’Artagnan, beginning to laugh also; whereupon Porthos laughed louder than ever.

“I broke,” said Porthos, in a voice half-choked from his increasing mirth, “more than three thousand francs worth of china — ha, ha, ha!”

“Good!” said D’Artagnan.

“I smashed more than four thousand francs worth of glass! —