CHAPTER LV
MAJOR CAVALCANTI
OTH the count and Baptistin had told the truth when they announced to Morcerf the proposed visit of the major, which had served Monte-Cristo as a pretext for declining the invitation which he had received from Albert. Seven o'clock had just struck, and Bertuccio, according to the command which had been given him, had two hours before left for Auteuil, when a fiacre stopped at the door of the hotel, and after depositing its occupant at the gate, immediately hurried away, as if ashamed of its employment. The man who alighted from the vehicle was about fifty-two years of age, dressed in one of those green surtouts, ornamented with black frogs, which have so long maintained their popularity all over Europe.
He wore trousers of blue cloth, boots tolerably clean, but not of the brightest polish, and a little too thick in the soles, buckskin gloves, a hat somewhat resembling in shape those usually worn by the gendarmes, and a black cravat striped with white, which, if the proprietor had not worn it of his own free will, might have passed for the neck-ring of a galley slave. Such was the picturesque costume of the person who rang at the gate, and demanded if it was not No. 30 in the Avenue des Champs Elysées that M. le Comte de Monte-Cristo inhabited, and who, being answered by the porter in the affirmative, entered, closed the gate after him, and began to ascend the steps of the house.
The small and angular head of the individual in question, his white hair and thick gray mustache, caused him to be easily recognized by Baptistin, who had received an exact description of the expected visitor, and who was awaiting him in the hall. Therefore, scarcely had the stranger time to pronounce his name before the count was apprised of his arrival. He was ushered into a simple and elegant drawing-room, and the count rose to meet him with a smiling air.
"Ah, my dear sir, you are most welcome; I was expecting you." "Indeed," said the Italian, "was your excellency then aware of my visit?"
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