“This is precisely what I mean by romance,” Athos sighs when Aramis invokes that film, of all things. But all of a sudden, it is as though the men are talking in code - agency, donation, process - and it is only knowing their hearts as well as he does that he can begin to guess what they might be talking about. “Ghastly, I would say,” he deadpans, for he knows it is better to joke about their process than to beg them to hold off just a little longer, to give his heart some more time to catch up.