“Like a frightened puppy,” Athos answers with an echoed smirk. Both as a boy and a man, Porthos has an ego the size of his big heart, and Athos is not about to puff it up further with lies and exaggerations. That young Porthos may have tried to present himself as a worldly, grown man, full of confidence, but Athos had seen through it. Porthos had been little more than a child, greener than d’Artagnan had been when they met him.