wered with a certain dignity:

"I never give alms to strangers."

"Bless my soul!" cried Fagiano, "your manners are improving. You do not
know my name, but I know yours, Monsieur Danglars!"

At this name the banker started back.

"You are mad!" he cried.

"Very well; but what would you say if at the Tuileries you heard
yourself announced by your real name, Monsieur Danglars?"

Danglars, for it was he, drew a pistol from his pocket and presented it
to Fagiano's breast. He with a quick blow struck it from the banker's
hand. It fell on the floor and fortunately did not go off. Fagiano
picked it up and drew the charge.

"Dangerous playthings and sad interruptions in a conversation," he said.
"We can understand each other without this. And now, having gotten
through with this melodramatic scene, I tell you that I shall not be
content with less than five hundred thousand francs."

Danglars was utterly confounded. But presently, gathering himself
together, he said:

"I am not intimidated by your threats. You can make what use you please
of your knowledge, you share it with many others. No one cares."

"But I have more to say. I propose to reveal my own name to you. Can I
so change that you do not recognize me?"

"I never saw you before."

"How does it happen, Monsieur Danglars, that you have a daughter of
twenty when your wife was living fifteen years since? She had a daughter
by you, and her name was not Carmen."

Danglars was disconcerted. He threw himself upon a chair.

"Go on," he said.

"Ah! you are beginning to understand me, are you? I know what I say, and
will prove it to you. You, as a banker, enriched yourself in
speculations, each more dishonorable than the other, and you encountered
a man who crushed you like a worm under his heel. You fell, but you are
of the kind that bounds, and to-day you are once more upon a pinnacle.
You vegetated for years, until the moment came when you could once more
seize fortune in your grasp. You are no longer Danglars the bankrupt and
thief--you are Laisangy, respected and trusted. Know then that I have it
in my power to throw you back into the mire from which you have
struggled. I am ready to be your enemy or your accomplice, the choice is
in your hands."

"Ah! I know you!" cried Danglars, throwing up his hands. "You are Andrea
Cavalcanti. Yes, it is all coming back to me. You called yourself by a
title to which you had no claim; you professed to have a fortune th