l I have
done, anything that merits, either from you or these gentlemen, the
pretended eulogies I have received. You were no stranger to me, for
I knew you from the time I gave up two rooms to you, invited you to
breakfast with me, lent you one of my carriages, witnessed the Carnival
in your company, and saw with you from a window in the Piazza del Popolo
the execution that affected you so much that you nearly fainted. I will
appeal to any of these gentlemen, could I leave my guest in the hands
of a hideous bandit, as you term him? Besides, you know, I had the idea
that you could introduce me into some of the Paris salons when I came
to France. You might some time ago have looked upon this resolution as a
vague project, but to-day you see it was a reality, and you must submit
to it under penalty of breaking your word."

"I will keep it," returned Morcerf; "but I fear that you will be much
disappointed, accustomed as you are to picturesque events and fantastic
horizons. Amongst us you will not meet with any of those episodes with
which your adventurous existence has so familiarized you; our Chimborazo
is Mortmartre, our Himalaya is Mount Valerien, our Great Desert is the
plain of Grenelle, where they are now boring an artesian well to water
the caravans. We have plenty of thieves, though not so many as is said;
but these thieves stand in far more dread of a policeman than a lord.
France is so prosaic, and Paris so civilized a city, that you will not
find in its eighty-five departments--I say eighty-five, because I do
not include Corsica--you will not find, then, in these eighty-five
departments a single hill on which there is not a telegraph, or a grotto
in which the commissary of police has not put up a gaslamp. There is but
one service I can render you, and for that I place myself entirely
at your orders, that is, to present, or make my friends present, you
everywhere; besides, you have no need of any one to introduce you--with
your name, and your fortune, and your talent" (Monte Cristo bowed with
a somewhat ironical smile) "you can present yourself everywhere, and be
well received. I can be useful in one way only--if knowledge of Parisian
habits, of the means of rendering yourself comfortable, or of the
bazaars, can assist, you may depend upon me to find you a fitting
dwelling here. I do not dare offer to share my apartments with you, as I
shared yours at Rome--I, who do not profess egotism, but am yet egotist
par exc