ther from anger.

"What have we all done, then, dear grandpapa?" said Valentine; "you no
longer seem to love any of us?" The old man's eyes passed rapidly
from Villefort and his wife, and rested on Valentine with a look of
unutterable fondness. "Well," said she; "if you love me, grandpapa, try
and bring that love to bear upon your actions at this present moment.
You know me well enough to be quite sure that I have never thought
of your fortune; besides, they say I am already rich in right of my
mother--too rich, even. Explain yourself, then." Noirtier fixed his
intelligent eyes on Valentine's hand. "My hand?" said she.

"Yes."

"Her hand!" exclaimed every one.

"Oh, gentlemen, you see it is all useless, and that my father's mind is
really impaired," said Villefort.

"Ah," cried Valentine suddenly, "I understand. It is my marriage you
mean, is it not, dear grandpapa?"

"Yes, yes, yes," signed the paralytic, casting on Valentine a look of
joyful gratitude for having guessed his meaning.

"You are angry with us all on account of this marriage, are you not?"

"Yes?"

"Really, this is too absurd," said Villefort.

"Excuse me, sir," replied the notary; "on the contrary, the meaning of
M. Noirtier is quite evident to me, and I can quite easily connect the
train of ideas passing in his mind."

"You do not wish me to marry M. Franz d'Epinay?" observed Valentine.

"I do not wish it," said the eye of her grandfather. "And you disinherit
your granddaughter," continued the notary, "because she has contracted
an engagement contrary to your wishes?"

"Yes."

"So that, but for this marriage, she would have been your heir?"

"Yes." There was a profound silence. The two notaries were holding
a consultation as to the best means of proceeding with the affair.
Valentine was looking at her grandfather with a smile of intense
gratitude, and Villefort was biting his lips with vexation, while Madame
de Villefort could not succeed in repressing an inward feeling of joy,
which, in spite of herself, appeared in her whole countenance. "But,"
said Villefort, who was the first to break the silence, "I consider that
I am the best judge of the propriety of the marriage in question. I am
the only person possessing the right to dispose of my daughter's hand.
It is my wish that she should marry M. Franz d'Epinay--and she shall
marry him." Valentine sank weeping into a chair.

"Sir," said the notary, "how do you intend disposing of your