Ten Years Later: Louise de la Valliere by Alexandre Dumas Chapter 60 Page 2

Guiche has told me so, my father has told me so, M. d’Artagnan has told me so. All life is but an idle dream. The future which I have been hopelessly pursuing for the last ten years is a dream! the union of hearts, a dream! a life of love and happiness, a dream! Poor fool that I am,” he continued, after a pause, “to dream away my existence aloud, publicly, and in the face of others, friends and enemies — and for what purpose, too? in order that my friends may be saddened by my troubles, and my enemies may laugh at my sorrows.

And so my unhappiness will soon become a notorious disgrace, a public scandal; and who knows but that to-morrow I may even be a public laughing-stock?”

And, despite the composure which he had promised his father and D’Artagnan to