fourth of my losses; the fourth of 700,000 francs is 175,000 francs."
"What you say is absurd, and I cannot see why M. Debray's name is mixed
up in this affair."
"Because if you do not possess the 175,000 francs I reclaim, you must
have lent them to your friends, and M. Debray is one of your friends."
"For shame!" exclaimed the baroness.
"Oh, let us have no gestures, no screams, no modern drama, or you will
oblige me to tell you that I see Debray leave here, pocketing the whole
of the 500,000 livres you have handed over to him this year, while
he smiles to himself, saying that he has found what the most skilful
players have never discovered--that is, a roulette where he wins without
playing, and is no loser when he loses." The baroness became enraged.
"Wretch!" she cried, "will you dare to tell me you did not know what you
now reproach me with?"
"I do not say that I did know it, and I do not say that I did not know
it. I merely tell you to look into my conduct during the last four years
that we have ceased to be husband and wife, and see whether it has not
always been consistent. Some time after our rupture, you wished to
study music, under the celebrated baritone who made such a successful
appearance at the Theatre Italien; at the same time I felt inclined to
learn dancing of the danseuse who acquired such a reputation in London.
This cost me, on your account and mine, 100,000 francs. I said nothing,
for we must have peace in the house; and 100,000 francs for a lady and
gentleman to be properly instructed in music and dancing are not too
much. Well, you soon become tired of singing, and you take a fancy
to study diplomacy with the minister's secretary. You understand, it
signifies nothing to me so long as you pay for your lessons out of your
own cashbox. But to-day I find you are drawing on mine, and that your
apprenticeship may cost me 700,000 francs per month. Stop there, madame,
for this cannot last. Either the diplomatist must give his lessons
gratis, and I will tolerate him, or he must never set his foot again in
my house;--do you understand, madame?"
"Oh, this is too much," cried Hermine, choking, "you are worse than
despicable."
"But," continued Danglars, "I find you did not even pause there"--
"Insults!"
"You are right; let us leave these facts alone, and reason coolly. I
have never interfered in your affairs excepting for your good; treat me
in the same way. You say you have nothing to do with my cash-box. Be
it so. Do as you like with your own, but do not fill or empty mine.
Besides, how do I know that this was not a political trick, that the
minister enraged at seeing me in the opposition, and jealous of the
popular sympathy I excite, has not concerted with M. Debray to ruin me?"
"A probable thing!"
"Why not? Who ever heard of such an occurrence as this?--a false
telegraphic despatch--it is almost impossible for wrong signals to be
made as they were in the last two telegrams. It was done on purpose for
me--I am sure of it."
"Sir," said the baroness humbly, "are you not aware that the man
employed there was dismissed, that they talked of going to law with him,
that orders were issued to arrest him and that this order would have
been put into execution if he had not escaped by flight, which proves
that he was either mad or guilty? It was a mistake."
"Yes, which made fools laugh, which caused the minister to have a
sleepless night, which has caused the minister's secretaries to blacken
several sheets of paper, but which has cost me 700,000 francs."
"But, sir," said Hermine suddenly, "if all this is, as you say, caused
by M. Debray, why, instead of going direct to him, do you come and tell
me of it? Why, to accuse the man, do you address the woman?"
"Do I know M. Debray?--do I wish to know him?--do I wish to know that he
gives advice?--do I wish to follow it?--do I speculate? No; you do all
this, not I."
"Still it seems to me, that as you profit by it--"
Danglars shrugged his shoulders. "Foolish creature," he exclaimed.
"Women fancy they have talent because they have managed two or three
intrigues without being the talk of Paris! But know that if you had
even hidden your irregularities from your husband, who has but the
commencement of the art--for generally husbands will not see--you would
then have been but a faint imitation of most of your friends among the
women of the world. But it has not been so with me,--I see, and always
have seen, during the last sixteen years. You may, perhaps, have hidden
a thought; but not a step, not an action, not a fault, has escaped me,
while you flattered yourself upon your address, and firmly believed you
had deceived me. What has been the result?--that, thanks to my pretended
ignorance, there is none of your friends, from M. de Villefort to M.
Debray, who has not trembled before me. There is not one who has not
treated me as the master of the house,--the only title I desire with
respect to you; there is not one, in fact, who would have dared to speak
of me as I have spoken of them this day. I will allow you to make me
hateful, but I will prevent your rendering me ridiculous, and, above
all, I forbid you to ruin me."
The baroness had been tolerably composed until the name of Villefort had
been pronounced; but then she became pale, and, rising, as if touched by
a spring, she stretched out her hands as though conjuring an apparition;
she then took two or three steps towards her husband, as though to tear
the secret from him, of which he was ignorant, or which he withheld from
some odious calculation,--odious, as all his calculations were. "M. de
Villefort!--What do you mean?"
"I mean that M. de Nargonne, your first husband, being neither a
philosopher nor a banker, or perhaps being both, and seeing there was
nothing to be got out of a king's attorney, died of grief or anger at
finding, after an absence of nine months, that you had been enceinte
six. I am brutal,--I not only allow it, but boast of it; it is one
of the reasons of my success in commercial business. Why did he kill
himself instead of you? Because he had no cash to save. My life belongs
to my cash. M. Debray has made me lose 700,000 francs; let him bear his
share of the loss, and we will go on as before; if not, let him become
bankrupt for the 250,000 livres, and do as all bankrupts do--disappear.
He is a charming fellow, I allow, when his news is correct; but when
it is not, there are fifty others in the world who would do better than
he."
Madame Danglars was rooted to the spot; she made a violent effort
to reply to this last attack, but she fell upon a chair thinking of
Villefort, of the dinner scene, of the strange series of misfortunes
which had taken place in her house during the last few days, and changed
the usual calm of her establishment to a scene of scandalous debate.
Danglars did not even look at her, though she did her best to faint.
He shut the bedroom door after him, without adding another word, and
returned to his apartments; and when Madame Danglars recovered from her
half-fainting condition, she could almost believe that she had had a
disagreeable dream.
Chapter 66. Matrimonial Projects.
The day following this scene, at the hour the banker usually chose to
pay a visit to Madame Danglars on his way to his office, his coupe
did not appear. At this time, that is, about half-past twelve, Madame
Danglars ordered her carriage, and went out. Danglars, hidden behind a
curtain, watched the departure he had been waiting for. He gave orders
that he should be informed as soon as Madame Danglars appeared; but at
two o'clock she had not returned. He then called for his horses, drove
to the Chamber, and inscribed his name to speak against the budget. From
twelve to two o'clock Danglars had remained in his study, unsealing his
dispatches, and becoming more and more sad every minute, heaping
figure upon figure, and receiving, among other visits, one from Major
Cavalcanti, who, as stiff and exact as ever, presented himself precisely
at the hour named the night before, to terminate his business with the
banker. On leaving the Chamber, Danglars, who had shown violent marks of
agitation during the sitting, and been more bitter than ever against the
ministry, re-entered his carriage, and told the coachman to drive to the
Avenue des Champs-Elysees, No. 30.
Monte Cristo was at home; only he was engaged with some one and begged
Danglars to wait for a moment in the drawing-room. While the banker was
waiting in the anteroom, the door opened, and a man dressed as an abbe
and doubtless more familiar with the house than he was, came in and
instead of waiting, merely bowed, passed on to the farther apartments,
and disappeared. A minute after the door by which the priest had entered
reopened, and Monte Cristo appeared. "Pardon me," said he, "my dear
baron, but one of my friends, the Abbe Busoni, whom you perhaps saw pass
by, has just arrived in Paris; not having seen him for a long time, I
could not make up my mind to leave him sooner, so I hope this will be
sufficient reason for my having made you wait."
"Nay," said Danglars, "it is my fault; I have chosen my visit at a wrong
time, and will retire."
"Not at all; on the contrary, be seated; but what is the matter
with you? You look careworn; really, you alarm me. Melancholy in a
capitalist, like the appearance of a comet, presages some misfortune to
the world."
"I have been in ill-luck for several days," said Danglars, "and I have
heard nothing but bad news."
"Ah, indeed?" said Monte Cristo. "Have you had another fall at the
Bourse?"
"No; I am safe for a few days at least. I am only annoyed about a
bankrupt of Trieste."
"Really? Does it happen to be Jacopo Manfredi?"
"Exactly so. Imagine a man who has transacted business with me for I
don't know how long, to the amount of 800,000 or 900,000 francs during
the year. Never a mistake or delay--a fellow who paid like a prince.
Well, I was a million in advance with him, and now my fine Jacopo
Manfredi suspends payment!"
"Really?"
"It is an unheard-of fatality. I draw upon him for 600,000. francs, my
bills are returned unpaid, and, more than that, I hold bills of
exchange signed by him to the value of 400,000. francs, payable at his
correspondent's in Paris at the end of this month. To-day is the 30th.
I present them; but my correspondent has disappeared. This, with my
Spanish affairs, made a pretty end to the month."
"Then you really lost by that affair in Spain?"
"Yes; only 700,000 francs out of my cash-box--nothing more!"
"Why, how could you make such a mistake--such an old stager?"
"Oh, it is all my wife's fault. She dreamed Don Carlos had returned to
Spain; she believes in dreams. It is magnetism, she says, and when she
dreams a thing it is sure to happen, she assures me. On this conviction
I allow her to speculate, she having her bank and her stockbroker; she
speculated and lost. It is true she speculates with her own money, not
mine; nevertheless, you can understand that when 700,000. francs leave
the wife's pocket, the husband always finds it out. But do you mean to
say you have not heard of this? Why, the thing has made a tremendous
noise."
"Yes, I heard it spoken of, but I did not know the details, and then no
one can be more ignorant than I am of the affairs in the Bourse."
"Then you do not speculate?"
"I?--How could I speculate when I already have so much trouble in
regulating my income? I should be obliged, besides my steward, to keep
a clerk and a boy. But touching these Spanish affairs, I think that the
baroness did not dream the whole of the Don Carlos matter. The papers
said something about it, did they not?"
"Then you believe the papers?"
"I?--not the least in the world; only I fancied that the honest Messager
was an exception to the rule, and that it only announced telegraphic
despatches."
"Well, that's what puzzles me," replied Danglars; "the news of the
return of Don Carlos was brought by telegraph."
"So that," said Monte Cristo, "you have lost nearly 1,700,000 francs
this month."
"Not nearly, indeed; that is exactly my loss."
"Diable," said Monte Cristo compassionately, "it is a hard blow for a
third-rate fortune."
"Third-rate," said Danglars, rather humble, "what do you mean by that?"
"Certainly," continued Monte Cristo, "I make three assortments in
fortune--first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate fortunes. I call those
first-rate which are composed of treasures one possesses under one's
hand, such as mines, lands, and funded property, in such states as
France, Austria, and England, provided these treasures and property form
a total of about a hundred millions; I call those second-rate fortunes,
that are gained by manufacturing enterprises, joint-stock companies,
viceroyalties, and principalities, not drawing more than 1,500,000
francs, the whole forming a capital of about fifty millions; finally,
I call those third-rate fortunes, which are composed of a fluctuating
capital, dependent upon the will of others, or upon chances which
a bankruptcy involves or a false telegram shakes, such as banks,
speculations of the day--in fact, all operations under the influence of
greater or less mischances, the whole bringing in a real or fictitious
capital of about fifteen millions. I think this is about your position,
is it not?"
"Confound it, yes!" replied Danglars.
"The result, then, of six more such months as this would be to reduce
the third-rate house to despair."
