depths of his soul; M. and Mme.
Morrel were equally affected. The Count, however, instantly decided what
was to be done. Tenderly, compassionately, embracing his daughter, he
said to her, in a soothing voice:

"My child, for the present it is best that you do not go to Giovanni. I
will see him for you and without delay put a plan in operation that I do
not doubt will result in his speedy cure. I know a wondrous physician
whose skill is so great that he can almost restore the dead to life. He
belongs to the despised race of Jews, but is a good as well as a
marvellous man. His name is Dr. Israel Absalom and he resides here in
Rome, within the walls of the shunned and execrated Ghetto, near the
Capitoline Mount. I will go to him at once and take him to young
Massetti. My daughter, rest assumed that this learned Hebrew will work
another miracle and give your lover back to you and in all the glory of
his mind and manhood! Be content, therefore, to remain where you are for
a brief period, with our devoted friend Valentine as your companion and
comforter."

"Yes, Zuleika," said Mme. Morrel, persuasively, "be content to remain
with me. I will not quit you even for an instant. We will talk of
Giovanni, of the happiness and joy the future has in store for both of
you, and, believe me, the hours will pass on rapid wings!"

As Valentine spoke she gently disengaged the girl from her father's neck
and passed her arm lovingly around her slender waist. Zuleika's head
sank upon her friend's shoulder.

"I yield to my father's solicitations and to your own, Valentine," she
said, submissively. "You are older and wiser than I am and what you say
is without doubt for the best. I will remain and trust to the wondrous
physician."

"I have heard a great deal of this Dr. Absalom since I have been in
Rome," said M. Morrel, addressing Monte-Cristo. "The common people
regard him as a magician and the higher classes as a cunning charlatan,
but, if his legitimate scientific skill is generally denied, his
brilliant and marvellous success, even in cases that the best Roman
physicians have abandoned as hopeless, is universally admitted."

"Dr. Absalom is neither a magician nor a charlatan," answered
Monte-Cristo, warmly, "but a physician of the utmost experience and of
the highest possible attainments. He is bent beneath the weight of years
and arduous study, yet his eye is as keen and his perception as acute as
if he were a youth of twenty. No