t black and empty. Then he arranged all his beautiful
Turkish arms, his fine English guns, his Japanese china, his cups
mounted in silver, his artistic bronzes by Feucheres and Barye; examined
the cupboards, and placed the key in each; threw into a drawer of his
secretary, which he left open, all the pocket-money he had about
him, and with it the thousand fancy jewels from his vases and his
jewel-boxes; then he made an exact inventory of everything, and placed
it in the most conspicuous part of the table, after putting aside the
books and papers which had collected there.

At the beginning of this work, his servant, notwithstanding orders to
the contrary, came to his room. "What do you want?" asked he, with a
more sorrowful than angry tone. "Pardon me, sir," replied the valet;
"you had forbidden me to disturb you, but the Count of Morcerf has
called me."

"Well!" said Albert.

"I did not like to go to him without first seeing you."

"Why?"

"Because the count is doubtless aware that I accompanied you to the
meeting this morning."

"It is probable," said Albert.

"And since he has sent for me, it is doubtless to question me on what
happened there. What must I answer?"

"The truth."

"Then I shall say the duel did not take place?"

"You will say I apologized to the Count of Monte Cristo. Go."

The valet bowed and retired, and Albert returned to his inventory. As he
was finishing this work, the sound of horses prancing in the yard, and
the wheels of a carriage shaking his window, attracted his attention. He
approached the window, and saw his father get into it, and drive away.
The door was scarcely closed when Albert bent his steps to his mother's
room; and, no one being there to announce him, he advanced to her
bed-chamber, and distressed by what he saw and guessed, stopped for one
moment at the door. As if the same idea had animated these two beings,
Mercedes was doing the same in her apartments that he had just done in
his. Everything was in order,--laces, dresses, jewels, linen, money, all
were arranged in the drawers, and the countess was carefully collecting
the keys. Albert saw all these preparations and understood them, and
exclaiming, "My mother!" he threw his arms around her neck.

The artist who could have depicted the expression of these two
countenances would certainly have made of them a beautiful picture. All
these proofs of an energetic resolution, which Albert did not fear on
his own accoun