carriage awaiting him. It
was a coupe of Koller's building, and with horses and harness for which
Drake had, to the knowledge of all the lions of Paris, refused on
the previous day seven hundred guineas. "Monsieur," said the count to
Albert, "I do not ask you to accompany me to my house, as I can only
show you a habitation fitted up in a hurry, and I have, as you know, a
reputation to keep up as regards not being taken by surprise. Give me,
therefore, one more day before I invite you; I shall then be certain not
to fail in my hospitality."

"If you ask me for a day, count, I know what to anticipate; it will not
be a house I shall see, but a palace. You have decidedly some genius at
your control."

"Ma foi, spread that idea," replied the Count of Monte Cristo, putting
his foot on the velvet-lined steps of his splendid carriage, "and that
will be worth something to me among the ladies." As he spoke, he sprang
into the vehicle, the door was closed, but not so rapidly that Monte
Cristo failed to perceive the almost imperceptible movement which
stirred the curtains of the apartment in which he had left Madame de
Morcerf. When Albert returned to his mother, he found her in the boudoir
reclining in a large velvet arm-chair, the whole room so obscure that
only the shining spangle, fastened here and there to the drapery, and
the angles of the gilded frames of the pictures, showed with some
degree of brightness in the gloom. Albert could not see the face of the
countess, as it was covered with a thin veil she had put on her head,
and which fell over her features in misty folds, but it seemed to him as
though her voice had altered. He could distinguish amid the perfumes of
the roses and heliotropes in the flower-stands, the sharp and fragrant
odor of volatile salts, and he noticed in one of the chased cups on the
mantle-piece the countess's smelling-bottle, taken from its shagreen
case, and exclaimed in a tone of uneasiness, as he entered,--"My dear
mother, have you been ill during my absence?"

"No, no, Albert, but you know these roses, tuberoses, and orange-flowers
throw out at first, before one is used to them, such violent perfumes."

"Then, my dear mother," said Albert, putting his hand to the bell, "they
must be taken into the ante-chamber. You are really ill, and just now
were so pale as you came into the room"--

"Was I pale, Albert?"

"Yes; a pallor that suits you admirably, mother, but which did not the
less alar