id
Albert, advancing to meet him, "permit me to repeat the poor thanks I
offered last night, and to assure you that the remembrance of all I owe
to you will never be effaced from my memory; believe me, as long as I
live, I shall never cease to dwell with grateful recollection on the
prompt and important service you rendered me; and also to remember that
to you I am indebted even for my life."

"My very good friend and excellent neighbor," replied the count, with a
smile, "you really exaggerate my trifling exertions. You owe me nothing
but some trifle of 20,000. francs, which you have been saved out of
your travelling expenses, so that there is not much of a score between
us;--but you must really permit me to congratulate you on the ease and
unconcern with which you resigned yourself to your fate, and the perfect
indifference you manifested as to the turn events might take."

"Upon my word," said Albert, "I deserve no credit for what I could not
help, namely, a determination to take everything as I found it, and to
let those bandits see, that although men get into troublesome scrapes
all over the world, there is no nation but the French that can smile
even in the face of grim Death himself. All that, however, has nothing
to do with my obligations to you, and I now come to ask you whether, in
my own person, my family, or connections, I can in any way serve you?
My father, the Comte de Morcerf, although of Spanish origin, possesses
considerable influence, both at the court of France and Madrid, and I
unhesitatingly place the best services of myself, and all to whom my
life is dear, at your disposal."

"Monsieur de Morcerf," replied the count, "your offer, far from
surprising me, is precisely what I expected from you, and I accept it in
the same spirit of hearty sincerity with which it is made;--nay, I will
go still further, and say that I had previously made up my mind to ask a
great favor at your hands."

"Oh, pray name it."

"I am wholly a stranger to Paris--it is a city I have never yet seen."

"Is it possible," exclaimed Albert, "that you have reached your present
age without visiting the finest capital in the world? I can scarcely
credit it."

"Nevertheless, it is quite true; still, I agree with you in thinking
that my present ignorance of the first city in Europe is a reproach
to me in every way, and calls for immediate correction; but, in all
probability, I should have performed so important, so necessary a