yielding cushions, that needed only to be arranged at the pleasure
or convenience of such as sought repose. Haidee and three French
maids, and one who was a Greek. The first three remained constantly
in a small waiting-room, ready to obey the summons of a small
golden bell, or to receive the orders of the Romaic slave, who knew
just enough French to be able to transmit her mistress's wishes to
the three other waiting-women; the latter had received most
peremptory instructions from Monte Cristo to treat Haidee with all
the deference they would observe to a queen.
The young girl herself generally passed her time in the chamber
at the farther end of her apartments. This was a sort of boudoir,
circular, and lighted only from the roof, which consisted of
rose-colored glass. Haidee was reclining upon soft downy cushions,
covered with blue satin spotted with silver; her head, supported by
one of her exquisitely moulded arms, rested on the divan
immediately behind her, while the other was employed in adjusting
to her lips the coral tube of a rich narghile, through whose
flexible pipe she drew the smoke fragrant by its passage through
perfumed water. Her attitude, though perfectly natural for an
Eastern woman would, in a European, have been deemed too full of
coquettish straining after effect. Her dress, which was that of the
women of Epirus, consisted of a pair of white satin trousers,
embroidered with pink roses, displaying feet so exquisitely formed
and so delicately fair, that they might well have been taken for
Parian marble, had not the eye been undeceived by their movements
as they constantly shifted in and out of a pair of little slippers
with upturned toes, beautifully ornamented with gold and pearls.
She wore a blue and white-striped vest, with long open sleeves,
trimmed with silver loops and buttons of pearls, and a sort of
bodice, which, closing only from the centre to the waist, exhibited
the whole of the ivory throat and upper part of the bosom; it wasthe whole of the ivory throat and upper part of the bosom; it was
fastened with three magnificent diamond clasps. The junction of the
bodice and drawers was entirely concealed by one of the
many-colored scarfs, whose brilliant hues and rich silken fringe
have rendered them so precious in the eyes of Parisian belles.
Tilted on one side of her head she had a small cap of gold-colored
silk, embroidered with pearls; while on the other a purple rose
mingled its glowing colors with the luxuriant masses of her hair,
of which the blackness was so intense that it was tinged with blue.
The extreme beauty of the countenance, that shone forth in
loveliness that mocked the vain attempts of dress to augment it,
was peculiarly and purely Grecian; there were the large, dark,
melting eyes, the finely formed nose, the coral lips, and pearly
teeth, that belonged to her race and country. And, to complete the
whole, Haidee was in the very springtide and fulness of youthful
charms — she had not yet numbered more than twenty summers.
Monte Cristo summoned the Greek attendant, and bade her inquire
whether it would be agreeable to her mistress to receive his visit.
Haidee's only reply was to direct her servant by a sign to withdraw
the tapestried curtain that hung before the door of her boudoir,
the framework of the opening thus made serving as a sort of border
to the graceful tableau presented by the young girl's picturesque
attitude and appearance. As Monte Cristo approached, she leaned
upon the elbow of the arm that held the narghile, and extending to
him her other hand, said, with a smile of captivating sweetness, in
the sonorous language spoken by the women of Athens and Sparta,
"Why demand permission ere you enter? Are you no longer my master,
or have I ceased to be your slave?" Monte Cristo returned her
smile. "Haidee," said he, "you well know."
"Why do you address me so coldly — so distantly?" asked the
young Greek. "Have I by any means displeased you? Oh, if so, punishyoung Greek. "Have I by any means displeased you? Oh, if so, punish
me as you will; but do not — do not speak to me in tones and manner
so formal and constrained."
"Haidee," replied the count, "you know that you are now in
France, and are free."
"Free to do what?" asked the young girl.
"Free to leave me."
"Leave you? Why should I leave you?"
"That is not for me to say; but we are now about to mix in
society — to visit and be visited."
"I don't wish to see anybody but you."
"And should you see one whom you could prefer, I would not be so
unjust" —
"I have never seen any one I preferred to you, and I have never
loved any one but you and my father."
"My poor child," replied Monte Cristo, "that is merely because
your father and myself are the only men who have ever talked to
you."
"I don't want anybody else to talk to me. My father said I was
his `joy' — you style me your `love,' — and both of you have called
me `my child.'"
"Do you remember your father, Haidee?" The young Greek smiled.
"He is here, and here," said she, touching her eyes and her heart.
"And where am I?" inquired Monte Cristo laughingly.
"You?" cried she, with tones of thrilling tenderness, "you are
everywhere!" Monte Cristo took the delicate hand of the young girl
in his, and was about to raise it to his lips, when the simple
child of nature hastily withdrew it, and presented her cheek. "You
now understand, Haidee," said the count, "that from this moment you
are absolutely free; that here you exercise unlimited sway, and are
at liberty to lay aside or continue the costume of your country, as
it may suit your inclination. Within this mansion you are absolute
mistress of your actions, and may go abroad or remain in your
apartments as may seem most agreeable to you. A carriage waits your
orders, and Ali and Myrtho will accompany you whithersoever you
desire to go. There is but one favor I would entreat of you."
"Speak."
"Guard carefully the secret of your birth. Make no allusion to
the past; nor upon any occasion be induced to pronounce the names