"Ah, indeed; you reflect, do you? Well, and what has that reflection led to?"
"It led me to guess the whole truth."
"Come, then, tell me, what did you guess after all?" said Porthos, settling himself into an armchair and assuming the airs of a sphinx.
"I guessed, in the first place, that you were fortifying Belle-Isle."
"There was no great difficulty in that, for you saw me at work."
"Wait a minute; I also guessed something else—that you were fortifying Belle-Isle by M. Fouquet's orders."
"That's true."
"But not all. Whenever I feel myself in train for guessing, I do not stop on my road; and so I guessed that M. Fouquet wished to preserve the most absolute secrecy respecting these fortifications."
"I believe that was his intention, in fact," said Porthos.
"Yes; but do you know why he wished to keep it secret?"