" Oh ! " said he to himself, " Porthos has got fat, but
Aramis has grown taller."



212 THE VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE.
CHAPTEE XXIV.
THE GRANDEUR OF THE BISHOP OP VANNES.
PoRTHOS and D'Artagnan had entered the bishop's resi-
dence by a private door, as his personal friends. Of
course, Porthos served D'Artagnan as guide. The worthy
baron comported himself everywhere rather as if he were
at home. Nevertheless, whether it was a tacit acknowl-
edgment of the sanctity of the personage of Aramis and
his character, or the habit of respecting him who exer-
cised a moral influence over him, — a worthy habit which
had always made Porthos a model soldier and an excel-
lent companion, — for these reasons, say we, Porthos pre-
served in the palace of his Greatness the Bishop of Vannes
a sort of reserve which D'Artagnan remarked at once in
the attitude he took with respect to the valets and the
officers. And yet this reserve did not go so far as to pre-
vent his asking questions. Porthos questioned. They
learned that his Greatness had just returned to his apart-
ments, and was preparing to appear, in familiar intimacy,
less majestic than he had appeared with his flock.
After a quarter of an hour, which D'Artagnan and Por-
thos passed in looking at the whites of each other's eyes,
and twirling their thumbs in all possible different evolu-
tions, a door of the hall opened, and his Greatness ap-
peared, dressed in the undress complete of a prelate.
