sword suspended over his head."
"And I know he has fought two duels," said Morrel. "How can you
reconcile that with his conduct this morning?"
"All owing to your influence," replied Monte Cristo,
smiling.
"It is well for Albert he is not in the army," said Morrel.
"Why?"
"An apology on the ground!" said the young captain, shaking his
head.
"Come," said the count mildly, "do not entertain the prejudices
of ordinary men, Morrel! Acknowledge, that if Albert is brave, he
cannot be a coward; he must then have had some reason for acting as
he did this morning, and confess that his conduct is more heroic
than otherwise."
"Doubtless, doubtless," said Morrel; "but I shall say, like the
Spaniard, `He has not been so brave to-day as he was
yesterday.'"
"You will breakfast with me, will you not, Morrel?" said the
count, to turn the conversation.
"No; I must leave you at ten o'clock."
"Your engagement was for breakfast, then?" said the count.
Morrel smiled, and shook his head. "Still you must breakfast
somewhere."
"But if I am not hungry?" said the young man.
"Oh," said the count, "I only know two things which destroy the
appetite, — grief — and as I am happy to see you very cheerful, it
is not that — and love. Now after what you told me this morning of
your heart, I may believe" —
"Well, count," replied Morrel gayly, "I will not dispute
it."
"But you will not make me your confidant, Maximilian?" said the
count, in a tone which showed how gladly he would have been
admitted to the secret.
"I showed you this morning that I had a heart, did I not,
count?" Monte Cristo only answered by extending his hand to the
young man. "Well," continued the latter, "since that heart is no
longer with you in the Bois de Vincennes, it is elsewhere, and I
must go and find it."
"Go," said the count deliberately; "go, dear friend, but promise
me if you meet with any obstacle to remember that I have some power
in this world, that I am happy to use that power in the behalf of
those I love, and that I love you, Morrel."those I love, and that I love you, Morrel."
"I will remember it," said the young man, "as selfish children
recollect their parents when they want their aid. When I need your
assistance, and the moment arrives, I will come to you, count."
"Well, I rely upon your promise. Good-by, then."
"Good-by, till we meet again." They had arrived in the Champs
Elysees. Monte Cristo opened the carriage-door, Morrel sprang out
on the pavement, Bertuccio was waiting on the steps. Morrel
disappeared down the Avenue de Marigny, and Monte Cristo hastened
to join Bertuccio.
"Well?" asked he.
"She is going to leave her house," said the steward.
"And her son?"
"Florentin, his valet, thinks he is going to do the same."
"Come this way." Monte Cristo took Bertuccio into his study,
wrote the letter we have seen, and gave it to the steward. "Go,"
said he quickly. "But first, let Haidee be informed that I have
returned."
"Here I am," said the young girl, who at the sound of the
carriage had run down-stairs and whose face was radiant with joy at
seeing the count return safely. Bertuccio left. Every transport of
a daughter finding a father, all the delight of a mistress seeing
an adored lover, were felt by Haidee during the first moments of
this meeting, which she had so eagerly expected. Doubtless,
although less evident, Monte Cristo's joy was not less intense. Joy
to hearts which have suffered long is like the dew on the ground
after a long drought; both the heart and the ground absorb that
beneficent moisture falling on them, and nothing is outwardly
apparent.
Monte Cristo was beginning to think, what he had not for a long
time dared to believe, that there were two Mercedes in the world,
and he might yet be happy. His eye, elate with happiness, was
reading eagerly the tearful gaze of Haidee, when suddenly the door
opened. The count knit his brow. "M. de Morcerf!" said Baptistin,
as if that name sufficed for his excuse. In fact, the count's face
brightened.
"Which," asked he, "the viscount or the count?"
"The count."brightened.
"Which," asked he, "the viscount or the count?"
"The count."
"Oh," exclaimed Haidee, "is it not yet over?"
"I know not if it is finished, my beloved child," said Monte
Cristo, taking the young girl's hands; "but I do know you have
nothing more to fear."
"But it is the wretched" —
"That man cannot injure me, Haidee," said Monte Cristo; "it was
his son alone that there was cause to fear."
"And what I have suffered," said the young girl, "you shall
never know, my lord." Monte Cristo smiled. "By my father's tomb,"
said he, extending his hand over the head of the young girl, "I
swear to you, Haidee, that if any misfortune happens, it will not
be to me."
"I believe you, my lord, as implicitly as if God had spoken to
me," said the young girl, presenting her forehead to him. Monte
Cristo pressed on that pure beautiful forehead a kiss which made
two hearts throb at once, the one violently, the other heavily.
"Oh," murmured the count, "shall I then be permitted to love again?
Ask M. de Morcerf into the drawing-room," said he to Baptistin,
while he led the beautiful Greek girl to a private staircase.
We must explain this visit, which although expected by Monte
Cristo, is unexpected to our readers. While Mercedes, as we have
said, was making a similar inventory of her property to Albert's,
while she was arranging her jewels, shutting her drawers,
collecting her keys, to leave everything in perfect order, she did
not perceive a pale and sinister face at a glass door which threw
light into the passage, from which everything could be both seen
and heard. He who was thus looking, without being heard or seen,
probably heard and saw all that passed in Madame de Morcerf's
apartments. From that glass door the pale-faced man went to the
count's bedroom and raised with a constricted hand the curtain of a
window overlooking the court-yard. He remained there ten minutes,
motionless and dumb, listening to the beating of his own heart. For
him those ten minutes were very long. It was then Albert, returning