By degrees, Milady became more communicative. She asked d'Artagnan if he had a mistress.
"Alas!" said d'Artagnan, with the most sentimental air he could assume, "can you be cruel enough to put such a question to me—to me, who, from the moment I saw you, have only breathed and sighed through you and for you?"
Milady smiled with a strange smile.
"Then you love me?" said she.