s; but you have only a small garden."

"True, the garden is not large."

"And then, such as it is, it is filled with dormice, who eat
everything."

"Ah! they are my scourges."

"Tell me, should you have the misfortune to turn your head while your
right-hand correspondent was telegraphing--"

"I should not see him."

"Then what would happen?"

"I could not repeat the signals."

"And then?"

"Not having repeated them, through negligence, I should be fined."

"How much?"

"A hundred francs."

"The tenth of your income--that would be fine work."

"Ah!" said the man.

"Has it ever happened to you?" said Monte Cristo.

"Once, sir, when I was grafting a rose-tree."

"Well, suppose you were to alter a signal, and substitute another?"

"Ah, that is another case; I should be turned off, and lose my
pension."

"Three hundred francs."

"A hundred crowns; yes, sir; so you see that I am not likely to do any
of these things."

"Not even for fifteen years' wages? Come, it is worth thinking about?"

"For fifteen thousand francs!"

"Yes."

"Sir, you alarm me."

"Nonsense!"

"Sir, you are tempting me?"

"Just so; fifteen thousand francs, do you understand?"

"Sir, let me see my right-hand correspondent!"

"On the contrary, do not look at him, but on this."

"What is it?"

"What! do you not know these little papers?"

"Bank-notes!"

"Exactly; there are fifteen of them."

"And whose are they?"

"Yours, if you like."

"Mine!" exclaimed the man, half suffocated.

"Yes; yours--your own property."

"Sir, my right-hand correspondent is signaling."

"Let him."

"Sir, you have distracted me; I shall be fined."

"That will cost you a hundred francs; you see it is your interest to
take my bank-notes."

"Sir, my right-hand correspondent redoubles his signals; he is
impatient."

"Never mind--take these;" and the count placed the packet in the hands
of the man. "Now, this is not all," he said; "you cannot live upon
your fifteen thousand francs."

"I shall still have my place."

"No! you will lose it, for you are going to alter the sign of your
correspondent."

"Oh, sir, what are you proposing?"

"A jest!"

"Sir, unless you force me--"

"I think I can effectually force you;" and Monte Cristo drew another
packet from his pocket. "Here are ten thousand more francs," he said;
"with the fifteen thousand already in your pocket, they will make
twenty-five thousand. With five thousand you c