t perfect confidence
which contradicted the girlish simplicity of this modest attire. Madame
Danglars was chatting at a short distance with Debray, Beauchamp, and
Chateau-Renaud.

Debray was admitted to the house for this grand ceremony, but on the
same plane with every one else, and without any particular privilege. M.
Danglars, surrounded by deputies and men connected with the revenue, was
explaining a new theory of taxation which he intended to adopt when
the course of events had compelled the government to call him into the
ministry. Andrea, on whose arm hung one of the most consummate dandies
of the opera, was explaining to him rather cleverly, since he was
obliged to be bold to appear at ease, his future projects, and the new
luxuries he meant to introduce to Parisian fashions with his hundred and
seventy-five thousand livres per annum.

The crowd moved to and fro in the rooms like an ebb and flow of
turquoises, rubies, emeralds, opals, and diamonds. As usual, the oldest
women were the most decorated, and the ugliest the most conspicuous. If
there was a beautiful lily, or a sweet rose, you had to search for it,
concealed in some corner behind a mother with a turban, or an aunt with
a bird of paradise.

At each moment, in the midst of the crowd, the buzzing, and the
laughter, the door-keeper's voice was heard announcing some name well
known in the financial department, respected in the army, or illustrious
in the literary world, and which was acknowledged by a slight movement
in the different groups. But for one whose privilege it was to agitate
that ocean of human waves, how many were received with a look of
indifference or a sneer of disdain! At the moment when the hand of the
massive time-piece, representing Endymion asleep, pointed to nine on its
golden face, and the hammer, the faithful type of mechanical thought,
struck nine times, the name of the Count of Monte Cristo resounded in
its turn, and as if by an electric shock all the assembly turned towards
the door.

The count was dressed in black and with his habitual simplicity; his
white waistcoat displayed his expansive noble chest and his black
stock was singularly noticeable because of its contrast with the deadly
paleness of his face. His only jewellery was a chain, so fine that the
slender gold thread was scarcely perceptible on his white waistcoat. A
circle was immediately formed around the door. The count perceived at
one glance Madame Danglars at