le man, the
Count of Monte-Cristo."

"I remember that morning well," said Chateau-Renaud.

"Everything, it is said, remains in that once splendid mansion precisely
as when it was deserted by the Countess and her son, at the time of the
suicide of the Count--everything except that glorious picture of the
Catalan fisherman by Leopold Robert, in Albert's exquisite chamber,
which alone he took with him."

"It is strange that a man so opulent as you represent M. Dantes to be,
should adopt his magnificence at second hand," observed Debray, coolly.

"But I do not represent him as opulent, my dear Lucien; and he certainly
is the last man either to invent magnificence or to adopt it. Why, he is
as plain in manners and mode as St. Simon himself. His dress you have
seen; as to equipage his only conveyance is a public fiacre; as to
diet, household arrangements and everything else of a personal nature,
nothing can be more republican and less epicurean than is witnessed at
his house. His study, Albert de Morcerf's pavilion, is said to be the
only sumptuous apartment in the whole establishment; and that
sumptuousness is of a character entirely literary and practical. His
retinue consists of three servants, called Baptistin, Bertuccio and Ali,
the latter being a Nubian, although fame gives him a perfect army of
servitors prompt to execute his bidding. But I will not indulge your
skeptical and sarcastic nature, Lucien, with a detail of all that rumor
says of this wonderful man. I will only say that all he is, and has or
hopes for seems devoted to one single object--the welfare of his race."

"Has he a wife?" asked Debray.

"He is a widower, with two children, a young girl, called Zuleika, and a
youthful son, called Esperance. But my acquaintance with him is wholly
of a public character. I have never been in his house, and very few
there are who have been. But here we are."

And the coupe stopped at Very's.

CHAPTER VII.

DANTES AND HIS DAUGHTER.

Even in the immediate vicinity of the Morcerf mansion, No. 27 Rue du
Helder, no one was aware that its new tenant was M. Dantes, the famous
Deputy from Marseilles. All the neighbors knew was that the palatial
edifice had been purchased by a stranger, who said he was acting for his
master, a man of great wealth lately arrived from the east. No repairs
or alterations had been made, while the Morcerf furniture was bought
with the house, the only new articles making their appear