and employed all day, not in studying the heavens like
an astronomer, or in gazing on the water like an angler, or even in
enjoying the privilege of observing the country around him, but all his
monotonous life was passed in watching his white-bellied, black-clawed
fellow insect, four or five leagues distant from him. At length I felt
a desire to study this living chrysalis more closely, and to endeavor
to understand the secret part played by these insect-actors when they
occupy themselves simply with pulling different pieces of string."

"And are you going there?"

"I am."

"What telegraph do you intend visiting? that of the home department, or
of the observatory?"

"Oh, no; I should find there people who would force me to understand
things of which I would prefer to remain ignorant, and who would try
to explain to me, in spite of myself, a mystery which even they do
not understand. Ma foi, I should wish to keep my illusions concerning
insects unimpaired; it is quite enough to have those dissipated which I
had formed of my fellow-creatures. I shall, therefore, not visit either
of these telegraphs, but one in the open country where I shall find
a good-natured simpleton, who knows no more than the machine he is
employed to work."

"You are a singular man," said Villefort.

"What line would you advise me to study?"

"The one that is most in use just at this time."

"The Spanish one, you mean, I suppose?"

"Yes; should you like a letter to the minister that they might explain
to you"--

"No," said Monte Cristo; "since, as I told you before, I do not wish to
comprehend it. The moment I understand it there will no longer exist a
telegraph for me; it will be nothing more than a sign from M. Duchatel,
or from M. Montalivet, transmitted to the prefect of Bayonne, mystified
by two Greek words, tele, graphein. It is the insect with black claws,
and the awful word which I wish to retain in my imagination in all its
purity and all its importance."

"Go then; for in the course of two hours it will be dark, and you will
not be able to see anything."

"Ma foi, you frighten me. Which is the nearest way? Bayonne?"

"Yes; the road to Bayonne."

"And afterwards the road to Chatillon?"

"Yes."

"By the tower of Montlhery, you mean?"

"Yes."

"Thank you. Good-by. On Saturday I will tell you my impressions
concerning the telegraph." At the door the count was met by the two
notaries, who had just completed the act whi