One evening I was in a garden; a clump of
trees concealed me; no one suspected I was there. Two persons passed
near me--allow me to conceal their names for the present; they were
speaking in an undertone, and yet I was so interested in what they said
that I did not lose a single word."

"This is a gloomy introduction, if I may judge from your pallor and
shuddering, Morrel."

"Oh, yes, very gloomy, my friend. Some one had just died in the house
to which that garden belonged. One of the persons whose conversation
I overheard was the master of the house; the other, the physician. The
former was confiding to the latter his grief and fear, for it was the
second time within a month that death had suddenly and unexpectedly
entered that house which was apparently destined to destruction by some
exterminating angel, as an object of God's anger."

"Ah, indeed?" said Monte Cristo, looking earnestly at the young man, and
by an imperceptible movement turning his chair, so that he remained
in the shade while the light fell full on Maximilian's face. "Yes,"
continued Morrel, "death had entered that house twice within one month."

"And what did the doctor answer?" asked Monte Cristo.

"He replied--he replied, that the death was not a natural one, and must
be attributed"--

"To what?"

"To poison."

"Indeed?" said Monte Cristo with a slight cough which in moments of
extreme emotion helped him to disguise a blush, or his pallor, or the
intense interest with which he listened; "indeed, Maximilian, did you
hear that?"

"Yes, my dear count, I heard it; and the doctor added that if another
death occurred in a similar way he must appeal to justice." Monte Cristo
listened, or appeared to do so, with the greatest calmness. "Well,"
said Maximilian, "death came a third time, and neither the master of
the house nor the doctor said a word. Death is now, perhaps, striking a
fourth blow. Count, what am I bound to do, being in possession of this
secret?"

"My dear friend," said Monte Cristo, "you appear to be relating an
adventure which we all know by heart. I know the house where you heard
it, or one very similar to it; a house with a garden, a master, a
physician, and where there have been three unexpected and sudden deaths.
Well, I have not intercepted your confidence, and yet I know all that
as well as you, and I have no conscientious scruples. No, it does not
concern me. You say an exterminating angel appears to have devoted that
ho