"I see no objection to that; my scruples do not go thus far."
"Well, since you will grant me no more, I must be content with what you give me. But one word more, count."
"What is it?"
"Advice."
"Be careful; advice is worse than a service."
"Oh, you can give me this without compromising yourself."
"Tell me what it is."
"Is my wife's fortune five hundred thousand livres?"
"That is the sum M. Danglars himself announced."
"Must I receive it, or leave it in the hands of the notary?"
"This is the way such affairs are generally arranged when it is wished to do them in good style:—Your two notaries appoint a meeting, when the contract is signed, for the next day or the following; then they exchange the two portions, for which they each give a receipt; then, when the marriage is celebrated, they place the amount at your disposal as chief of the household."
"Because," said Andrea, with a certain ill-concealed uneasiness, "I thought I heard my father-in-law say he intended embarking our property in that famous railway affair of which you spoke just now."
"Well," replied Monte-Cristo, "it will be the way, everybody says, of trebling your fortune in twelve months. The Baron Danglars is a good father, and knows how to calculate."
"Come, then," said Andrea, "all is well, excepting your refusal, which quite grieves me."
"You must attribute it only to natural scruples under similiar circumstances."
"Well," said Andrea, "let it be as you wish; this evening, then, at nine o'clock."
"Adieu till then."
Notwithstanding a slight resistance on the part of Monte-Cristo, whose lips turned pale, but who preserved his ceremonious smile, Andrea seized the count's hand, pressed it, jumped into his phaeton, and disappeared.
The four or five remaining hours before nine o'clock arrived Andrea employed in riding, paying visits destined to induce those of whom he had spoken to appear at the banker's in their gayest equipages, dazzling them by promises of allotments of shares, which have since turned every brain, and in which Danglars just now took the initiative.
In fact, at half-past eight in the evening the grand salon, the gallery adjoining, and the three other drawing-rooms on the same floor, were filled with a perfumed crowd, who sympathized but little in the
