awaken her, and Monte Cristo gazed at her with
affectionate regret. "She remembered that she had a son," said he; "and
I forgot I had a daughter." Then, shaking his head sorrowfully, "Poor
Haidee," said he; "she wished to see me, to speak to me; she has feared
or guessed something. Oh, I cannot go without taking leave of her; I
cannot die without confiding her to some one." He quietly regained his
seat, and wrote under the other lines:--

"I bequeath to Maximilian Morrel, captain of Spahis,--and son of my
former patron, Pierre Morrel, shipowner at Marseilles,--the sum of
twenty millions, a part of which may be offered to his sister Julia and
brother-in-law Emmanuel, if he does not fear this increase of fortune
may mar their happiness. These twenty millions are concealed in my
grotto at Monte Cristo, of which Bertuccio knows the secret. If his
heart is free, and he will marry Haidee, the daughter of Ali Pasha of
Yanina, whom I have brought up with the love of a father, and who
has shown the love and tenderness of a daughter for me, he will thus
accomplish my last wish. This will has already constituted Haidee
heiress of the rest of my fortune, consisting of lands, funds in
England, Austria, and Holland, furniture in my different palaces and
houses, and which without the twenty millions and the legacies to my
servants, may still amount to sixty millions."

He was finishing the last line when a cry behind him made him start, and
the pen fell from his hand. "Haidee," said he, "did you read it?"

"Oh, my lord," said she, "why are you writing thus at such an hour? Why
are you bequeathing all your fortune to me? Are you going to leave me?"

"I am going on a journey, dear child," said Monte Cristo, with an
expression of infinite tenderness and melancholy; "and if any misfortune
should happen to me."

The count stopped. "Well?" asked the young girl, with an authoritative
tone the count had never observed before, and which startled him.
"Well, if any misfortune happen to me," replied Monte Cristo, "I wish
my daughter to be happy." Haidee smiled sorrowfully, and shook her head.
"Do you think of dying, my lord?" said she.

"The wise man, my child, has said, 'It is good to think of death.'"

"Well, if you die," said she, "bequeath your fortune to others, for if
you die I shall require nothing;" and, taking the paper, she tore it in
four pieces, and threw it into the middle of the room. Then, the effort
having exhausted her s