as he replied:

"I am sure I don't know."

"It looks to me as if these men whom you call brigands were inflicting a
chastisement upon you, perhaps."

"Carmen!"

"Come, throw down your cards. I tell you I will no longer submit to this
miserable farce we are playing here. I will no longer call myself your
daughter, nor will I be dragged into the maze of intrigues which I
divine."

"Carmen! once more I implore you--"

"I will not be your accomplice and be dragged by you into an abyss of
infamy!"

"But why should you say such things? I am rich, and honored by the favor
of the Emperor."

"A fine recommendation, that!" cried Carmen, disdainfully.

"I am respected and honored by every one."

Carmen rose from her chair and looked the banker full in the face.

"Then tell me why, when we were at the _soiree_ last evening, at a name
pronounced by a lacquey you became ghastly pale."

"You are mistaken--"

"It is true; you fled as if you had seen a ghost, and the name was
Monte-Cristo."

Laisangy was terrible to look at.

"Hold your tongue! Hold your tongue!" and the banker rushed toward her
with uplifted hand.

But Carmen, with her arms folded upon her breast, looked at him with
such disdain that his arm fell at his side.

"And this is not all," she continued. "You met many enemies last
evening, it seems; for some one said in the garden, 'Take care that you
do not learn my name too soon, Monsieur de Laisangy.' These may not be
the precise words, but they are nearly so."

"Ah! you are a spy, then! Look out!"

"I am not in the least afraid of you; but let me tell you that your
present conduct strengthens all my suspicions, and I, in my turn, bid
you look out! I shall learn the truth, and then--"

"And then--"

"I shall leave you. But if, in self-defence, you raise a finger against
one whom I esteem, I will denounce you!"

Laisangy, exasperated beyond all self-control, seized a knife from the
table. The door opened and the maid entered.

"Here is a card which the gentleman wished me to hand you at once, sir."

Carmen took the card and read the name.

"Signor Fagiano!" she read aloud. "Ah! he has come to tell you his right
name, I fancy!"

Laisangy took the card from Carmen's hand and dashed from the room.
Carmen said, half aloud:

"Goutran is the friend of the Vicomte de Monte-Cristo. I will watch!"

CHAPTER LV.

THE BANKER.

Signor Fagiano was standing, when Monsieur de Laisangy enter