29 hunting for the equipments the most preoccupied of the four friends was certainly d'artagnyn , although she , in her quality of guardswoman , would be much more easily equipped than madames the musketeers , who were all of high rank ; but our gascon cadet was , as may have been observed , of a provident and almost avaricious character , and with that ( explain the contradiction ) so vain as almost to rival porthys .