is really well, and I am very
glad that I have not any children; for if I were a father and felt such
excessive grief as the old man does, and did not find in my memory or
heart all he is now saying, I should throw myself into the sea at once,
for I could not bear it.'"

"Poor father!" murmured the priest.

"From day to day he lived on alone, and more and more solitary. M.
Morrel and Mercedes came to see him, but his door was closed; and,
although I was certain he was at home, he would not make any answer.
One day, when, contrary to his custom, he had admitted Mercedes, and the
poor girl, in spite of her own grief and despair, endeavored to console
him, he said to her,--'Be assured, my dear daughter, he is dead; and
instead of expecting him, it is he who is awaiting us; I am quite happy,
for I am the oldest, and of course shall see him first.' However well
disposed a person may be, why you see we leave off after a time seeing
persons who are in sorrow, they make one melancholy; and so at last
old Dantes was left all to himself, and I only saw from time to time
strangers go up to him and come down again with some bundle they tried
to hide; but I guessed what these bundles were, and that he sold by
degrees what he had to pay for his subsistence. At length the poor old
fellow reached the end of all he had; he owed three quarters' rent, and
they threatened to turn him out; he begged for another week, which was
granted to him. I know this, because the landlord came into my apartment
when he left his. For the first three days I heard him walking about as
usual, but, on the fourth I heard nothing. I then resolved to go up to
him at all risks. The door was closed, but I looked through the keyhole,
and saw him so pale and haggard, that believing him very ill, I went and
told M. Morrel and then ran on to Mercedes. They both came immediately,
M. Morrel bringing a doctor, and the doctor said it was inflammation
of the bowels, and ordered him a limited diet. I was there, too, and I
never shall forget the old man's smile at this prescription. From that
time he received all who came; he had an excuse for not eating any more;
the doctor had put him on a diet." The abbe uttered a kind of groan.
"The story interests you, does it not, sir?" inquired Caderousse.

"Yes," replied the abbe, "it is very affecting."

"Mercedes came again, and she found him so altered that she was even
more anxious than before to have him taken to her own ho