LIII. Robert le diable.

LIII

Robert the Devil.

The Opera was all the better worth attending since that evening there was a solemn performance at the Royal Academy of Music. Levasseur, after a long illness, was returning in the role of Bertram, and, as always, the work of the fashionable maestro had attracted the most brilliant society of Paris.

Morcerf, like most rich young men, had his orchestra stall, plus a dozen boxes belonging to acquaintances where he could ask for a seat without counting the one he was entitled to in the lions' box.

Château-Renaud had the stall next to his.

Beauchamp, in his capacity as journalist, was king of the house and had a place everywhere.

That evening, Lucien Debray had the disposal of the minister's box, and he had offered it to Count Morcerf, who, on Mercédès's refusal, had sent it to Danglars, telling the baron that he would probably pay a visit in the evening to the baroness and her daughter, if those ladies would deign to accept the box he proposed to them. The ladies had not dared refuse. No one is fonder of free boxes than a millionaire.

As for Danglars, he had declared that his political principles and his quality as deputy of the opposition did not permit him to go to the minister's box. Consequently, the baroness had written to Lucien to come and fetch her, since she could not go to the Opera alone with Eugénie.

Indeed, if the two women had been alone, people would certainly have thought it very improper; whereas Mlle Danglars going to the Opera with her mother and her mother's lover, there was nothing to be said: one must take the world as it is made.

The curtain rose, as usual, on a house almost empty. It is yet another habit of our Parisian fashion, to arrive at the spectacle when the spectacle has begun: the result is that the first act is spent, by those who have arrived, not in looking at or listening to the play, but in watching the arriving spectators come in, and in hearing nothing but the noise of doors and of conversations.

"Look!" said Albert suddenly, seeing a side box of the first tier open, "look! the Countess G..."

"Who is the Countess G...?" asked Château-Renaud.

"Oh, really, baron, that is a question I do not forgive you; you ask who the Countess G... is?"

"Ah, true," said Château-Renaud, "is it not that charming Venetian?"

"Exactly."

At that moment the Countess G... caught sight of Albert and exchanged with him a bow accompanied by a smile.

"You know her?" said Château-Renaud.

"Yes," said Albert; "I was presented to her at Rome by Franz."

"Will you do me in Paris the same service that Franz did you at Rome?"

"Willingly."

"Hush!" cried the audience.

The two young men continued their conversation, seeming not in the least concerned by the desire the pit appeared to feel to hear the music.

"She was at the Champ-de-Mars races," said Château-Renaud.

"Today?"

"Yes."

"Why, there were races. Were you engaged?"

"Oh, for a trifle, for fifty louis."

"And who won?"

"Nautilus; I was betting on him."

"But there were three races?"

"Yes. There was the Jockey Club prize, a gold cup. Something rather odd happened, too."

"What?"

"Hush, then!" cried the audience.

"What?" repeated Albert.

"It is a completely unknown horse and jockey who won that race."

"How?"

"Oh, my God, yes, no one had paid any attention to a horse entered under the name of Vampa and a jockey entered under the name of Job, when suddenly there advanced an admirable chestnut and a jockey as big as your fist; they had to stuff twenty pounds of lead into his pockets, which did not prevent him from reaching the goal three horse-lengths ahead of Ariel and Barbaro, who were running with him."

"And no one knew to whom the horse and jockey belonged?"

"No."

"You say this horse was entered under the name of..."

"Vampa."

"Then," said Albert, "I am further advanced than you; I know who it belonged to, I do."

"Silence, then!" cried the pit for the third time.

This time the outcry was so great that the two young men at last perceived that it was at them the audience was addressing itself. They turned round for an instant, seeking in the crowd a man who took the responsibility for what they regarded as an impertinence; but no one repeated the invitation, and they turned back toward the stage. At that moment the minister's box opened, and Mme Danglars, her daughter, and Lucien Debray took their places.

"Ah, ah!" said Château-Renaud, "there are persons of your acquaintance, vicomte. What the devil were you looking at on the right? You are being sought."

Albert turned round, and his eyes indeed met those of the Baroness Danglars, who made him a little bow with her fan. As for Mlle Eugénie, her large black eyes scarcely deigned to lower as far as the orchestra.

"Truly, my dear," said Château-Renaud, "I do not understand, apart from the misalliance, and I do not believe that is what troubles you much; I do not understand, I say, apart from the misalliance, what you can have against Mlle Danglars; she is in truth a very fine person."

"Very fine, certainly," said Albert; "but I confess that, in the matter of beauty, I should prefer something softer, more suave, more feminine, in short."

"There are the young men," said Château-Renaud, who, in his quality of a man of thirty, took paternal airs with Morcerf; "they are never satisfied. How now, my dear! a betrothed built on the model of the huntress Diana is found for you, and you are not content!"

"Well, precisely, I should have preferred something in the style of the Venus of Milo or of Capua. This huntress Diana, ever amid her nymphs, frightens me a little; I am afraid she will treat me as Actaeon."

Indeed, a glance cast upon the young girl might almost explain the sentiment Morcerf had just avowed. Mlle Danglars was beautiful, but, as Albert had said, with a somewhat fixed beauty: her hair was a beautiful black, but in its natural waves one remarked a certain rebellion against the hand that would impose its will; her eyes, black as her hair, framed beneath magnificent eyebrows which had but one fault, that of frowning sometimes, were especially remarkable for an expression of firmness one was astonished to find in a woman's gaze; her nose had the exact proportions a statuary would have given to that of Juno: her mouth alone was too large, but furnished with fine teeth set off still more by lips whose too-vivid carmine contrasted with the pallor of her complexion; finally, a black mark placed at the corner of the mouth, and larger than such caprices of nature ordinarily are, completed the giving to this physiognomy that decided character which somewhat alarmed Morcerf.

Moreover, all the rest of Eugénie's person allied itself with the head we have just endeavored to describe. She was, as Château-Renaud had said, the huntress Diana, but with something still firmer and more muscular in her beauty.

As for the education she had received, if there were a reproach to make her, it is that, like certain points of her physiognomy, she seemed a little to belong to another sex. Indeed, she spoke two or three languages, drew readily, made verses and composed music; she was especially passionate for the latter art, which she studied with a schoolfriend of hers, a young person without fortune, but having every disposition to become, as was asserted, an excellent singer. A great composer bore, it was said, toward the latter an almost paternal interest, and made her work with the hope that she would one day find a fortune in her voice.

This possibility that Mlle Louise d'Armilly, for that was the name of the young virtuoso, might one day enter the theatre made Mlle Danglars, though receiving her at her house, not show herself in public in her company. Otherwise, without having in the banker's house the independent position of a friend, Louise had a position superior to that of ordinary governesses.

A few seconds after Mme Danglars's entrance into her box, the curtain had fallen, and, thanks to that faculty, left by the length of the intervals, of walking in the foyer or making visits for half an hour, the orchestra had almost emptied.

Morcerf and Château-Renaud had gone out first. For an instant Mme Danglars had thought that this eagerness of Albert's had for its object to come and present his compliments to her, and she had leaned toward her daughter's ear to announce this visit to her, but the latter had contented herself with shaking her head and smiling; and at the same moment, as if to prove how well founded Eugénie's denial was, Morcerf appeared in a side box of the first tier. This box was that of the Countess G...

"Ah! there you are, Monsieur Traveller," said the latter, holding out her hand with all the cordiality of an old acquaintance; "it is very kind of you to have recognized me, and above all to have given me the preference for your first visit."

"Believe, madame," replied Albert, "that if I had known of your arrival in Paris and known your address, I should not have waited so long. But permit me to present M. le Baron de Château-Renaud, my friend, one of the few gentlemen still remaining in France, and by whom I have just learned that you were at the Champ-de-Mars races."

Château-Renaud bowed.

"Ah! you were at the races, sir?" said the countess quickly.

"Yes, madame."

"Well," resumed Mme G... quickly, "can you tell me to whom belonged the horse that won the Jockey Club prize?"

"No, madame," said Château-Renaud, "and I was just putting the same question to Albert."

"Do you care very much about it, madame la comtesse?" asked Albert.

"About what?"

"About knowing the master of the horse?"

"Infinitely. Only imagine... But would you by chance know who, vicomte?"

"Madame, you were about to tell a story: 'only imagine,' you said."

"Well, only imagine that this charming chestnut horse and this pretty little jockey in a pink jacket had, at first sight, inspired in me so lively a sympathy, that I was making vows for the one and the other, exactly as if I had staked half my fortune on them; so, when I saw them reach the goal, ahead of the other runners by three horse-lengths, I was so joyful that I began to clap my hands like a madwoman. Picture to yourselves my astonishment when, on returning home, I met on my staircase the little pink jockey! I thought the winner of the race happened to live in the same house as myself, when, on opening the door of my salon, the first thing I saw was the gold cup which formed the prize won by the unknown horse and jockey. In the cup there was a little paper on which were written these words: 'To the Countess G..., Lord Ruthwen.'"

"That is exactly it," said Morcerf.

"What! that is exactly it; what do you mean?"

"I mean that it is Lord Ruthwen in person."

"Which Lord Ruthwen?"

"Ours, the vampire, the one at the Argentina theatre."

"Indeed!" cried the countess; "he is here then?"

"Perfectly."

"And you see him? you receive him? you go to his house?"

"He is my intimate friend, and M. de Château-Renaud himself has the honor of knowing him."

"Who can make you believe it is he who won?"

"His horse entered under the name of Vampa..."

"Well, after?"

"Well, do you not recall the name of the famous bandit who made me prisoner?"

"Ah, true."

"And from whose hands the count miraculously drew me?"

"To be sure."

"He was called Vampa. You see well that it is he."

"But why has he sent me this cup, to me?"

"First, madame la comtesse, because I had spoken much to him of you, as you may believe; then because he must have been delighted to find a compatriot again, and happy at the interest this compatriot took in him."

"I hope you never told him the foolish things we said about him!"

"Upon my word, I would not swear to it, and this way of offering you this cup under the name of Lord Ruthwen..."

"But it is frightful, he will owe me mortal enmity."

"Is his proceeding that of an enemy?"

"No, I confess."

"Well!"

"So, he is in Paris?"

"Yes."

"And what sensation has he made?"

"But," said Albert, "people talked of him for a week, then came the coronation of the Queen of England and the theft of Mlle Mars's diamonds, and people talked of nothing more but that."

"My dear," said Château-Renaud, "one sees well that the count is your friend, you treat him accordingly. Do not believe what Albert tells you, madame la comtesse, on the contrary it is only of the Count of Monte Cristo that people speak in Paris. He first began by sending Mme Danglars horses worth thirty thousand francs; then he saved the life of Mme de Villefort; then he won the Jockey Club race, it appears. I maintain, on the contrary, I, whatever Morcerf may say, that people are still occupied with the count at this moment, and that they will occupy themselves with no one but him in a month, if he continues to be eccentric, which, moreover, appears to be his ordinary manner of living."

"That is possible," said Morcerf; "meanwhile, who then has taken the ambassador of Russia's box?"

"Which?" asked the countess.

"The entre-colonne of the first tier; it seems to me perfectly renewed."

"Indeed," said Château-Renaud. "Was there anyone during the first act?"

"Where?"

"In that box?"

"No," resumed the countess, "I saw no one; thus," she continued, returning to the first conversation, "you believe it is your Count of Monte Cristo who won the prize?"

"I am sure of it."

"And who sent me this cup?"

"Undoubtedly."

"But I do not know him, I," said the countess, "and I have a great mind to send it back to him."

"Oh! do nothing of the kind; he would send you another, cut from some sapphire or hollowed from some ruby. Those are his ways of acting; what would you have, one must take him as he is."

At that moment they heard the bell which announced that the second act was about to begin. Albert rose to regain his seat.

"Shall I see you?" asked the countess.

"In the intervals, if you permit, I will come to inquire if I can be of any service to you in Paris."

"Gentlemen," said the countess, "every Saturday evening, Rue de Rivoli, 22, I am at home for my friends. You are warned."

The young men bowed and went out.

On entering the house, they saw the pit standing and eyes fixed on a single point of the hall; their glances followed the general direction, and rested on the former box of the ambassador of Russia. A man dressed in black, from thirty-five to forty years old, had just entered there with a woman clothed in an oriental costume. The woman was of the greatest beauty, and the costume of such richness that, as we have said, all eyes had at once turned toward her.

"Why!" said Albert, "it is Monte Cristo and his Greek."

Indeed, it was the count and Haydée.

At the end of an instant, the young woman was the object of the attention not only of the pit, but of the whole house; the women leaned out of the boxes to see, streaming under the chandeliers' lights, that cascade of diamonds.

The second act passed amid that muffled rumor which indicates, in assembled crowds, a great event. No one thought of crying silence. This woman so young, so beautiful, so dazzling, was the most curious spectacle one could see.

This time, a sign from Mme Danglars clearly indicated to Albert that the baroness desired to have his visit in the following interval.

Morcerf was of too good taste to make himself waited for when it was clearly indicated that he was expected. The act finished, he therefore hastened to go up into the front box.

He bowed to the two ladies and held out his hand to Debray.

The baroness received him with a charming smile and Eugénie with her habitual coldness.

"Upon my word, my dear," said Debray, "you see a man at his wits' end, and who calls you to his aid to relieve him. Here is madame crushing me with questions about the count, and who wants me to know whence he is, whence he comes, where he goes; upon my word, I am not Cagliostro, I, and to get myself out of the affair, I said: 'Ask all that of Morcerf, he knows his Monte Cristo at his fingertips'; so they made you a sign."

"Is it not incredible," said the baroness, "that when one has half a million of secret funds at one's disposal one is not better informed than that?"

"Madame," said Lucien, "I beg you to believe that if I had half a million at my disposal, I would employ it in something other than taking information about M. de Monte Cristo, who has no other merit in my eyes than being twice as rich as a nabob; but I have passed the word to my friend Morcerf; arrange that with him, it concerns me no longer."

"A nabob would certainly not have sent me a pair of horses worth thirty thousand francs, with four diamonds at the ears, of five thousand francs each."

"Oh! the diamonds," said Morcerf laughing, "that is his mania. I believe that, like Potemkin, he always has some in his pockets, and that he scatters them on his path like Little Thumb did his pebbles."

"He must have found some mine," said Mme Danglars; "you know he has an unlimited credit on the baron's house?"

"No, I did not know it," replied Albert, "but it must be so."

"And that he announced to M. Danglars that he counted on remaining a year in Paris and spending six millions there?"

"It is the Shah of Persia travelling incognito."

"And this woman, Monsieur Lucien," said Eugénie, "have you noticed how beautiful she is?"

"Truly, mademoiselle, I know no one but you to do such justice to persons of your sex."

Lucien raised his eyeglass to his eye.

"Charming!" said he.

"And this woman, does M. de Morcerf know who she is?"

"Mademoiselle," said Albert, answering this almost direct question, "I know it about as much as all that concerns the mysterious personage we are occupying ourselves with. This woman is a Greek."

"That is easily seen from her costume, and you tell me only what the whole house already knows as well as we."

"I am sorry," said Morcerf, "to be so ignorant a cicerone, but I must confess that my knowledge stops there; I know, besides, that she is musical, for one day that I lunched with the count, I heard the sounds of a guzla which could certainly come only from her."

"Then he receives, your count?" asked Mme Danglars.

"And in splendid fashion, I assure you."

"I must push Danglars to offer him some dinner, some ball, so that he may return them to us."

"How, you will go to his house?" said Debray laughing.

"Why not? with my husband!"

"But he is a bachelor, this mysterious count."

"You see well he is not," said the baroness laughing in her turn, pointing to the beautiful Greek.

"This woman is a slave, as he himself told us, do you remember, Morcerf? at your luncheon?"

"Agree, my dear Lucien," said the baroness, "that she has much rather the air of a princess."

"Of the Thousand and One Nights."

"Of the Thousand and One Nights, I do not say; but what makes princesses, my dear? it is diamonds, and this one is covered with them."

"She even has too many," said Eugénie; "she would be more beautiful without them, for one would see her neck and her wrists, which are charming in form."

"Oh! the artist. See," said Mme Danglars, "do you see her growing enthusiastic?"

"I love all that is beautiful," said Eugénie.

"But what do you say of the count then?" said Debray; "it seems to me he is not bad-looking either."

"The count?" said Eugénie, as if she had not yet thought of looking at him, "the count, he is very pale."

"Precisely," said Morcerf, "it is in this pallor that is the secret we are seeking. The Countess G... pretends, you know, that he is a vampire."

"She is back then, the Countess G...?" asked the baroness.

"In that side box," said Eugénie, almost opposite us, mamma; that woman, with those admirable blond hairs, it is she."

"Oh! yes," said Mme Danglars; "do you not know what you should do, Morcerf?"

"Command, madame."

"You should go pay a visit to your Count of Monte Cristo and bring him to us."

"What for?" said Eugénie.

"Why, so that we may speak to him; are you not curious to see him?"

"Not in the least."

"Strange child!" murmured the baroness.

"Oh!" said Morcerf, "he will probably come of himself. See, he has seen you, madame, and he salutes you."

The baroness returned the count's salute, accompanied by a charming smile.

"Come," said Morcerf, "I sacrifice myself; I leave you and go see if there is no means of speaking to him."

"Go into his box; it is simple enough."

"But I am not presented."

"To whom?"

"To the beautiful Greek."

"She is a slave, you say?"

"Yes, but you pretend, you, that she is a princess... No. I hope that when he sees me go out he will go out."

"That is possible. Go!"

"I am going."

Morcerf bowed and went out. Indeed, at the moment he passed before the count's box, the door opened; the count said a few words in Arabic to Ali, who was standing in the corridor, and took Morcerf's arm.

Ali closed the door again, and stood before it; there was a gathering in the corridor around the Nubian.

"Truly," said Monte Cristo, "your Paris is a strange city, and your Parisians a singular people. One would say it is the first time they have seen a Nubian. Look at them press around poor Ali, who does not know what it means. I answer you for one thing, however, which is that a Parisian may go to Tunis, to Constantinople, to Bagdad or to Cairo, no one will make a circle around him."

"That is because your Orientals are sensible people, and look only at what is worth seeing; but believe me, Ali enjoys this popularity only because he belongs to you, and because at this moment you are the man of the fashion."

"Indeed! and who wins me this favor?"

"Bless me! yourself. You give teams of a thousand louis; you save the lives of women of the king's attorney; you make run, under the name of Major Brack, thoroughbred horses and jockeys as big as marmosets; finally, you win gold cups, and send them to pretty women."

"And who the devil told you all those follies?"

"Why, the first, Mme Danglars, who is dying to see you in her box, or rather to be seen there with you; the second, Beauchamp's journal, and the third, my own imagination. Why do you call your horse Vampa, if you wish to keep incognito?"

"Ah! true!" said the count; "that is an imprudence. But tell me, does not the Count of Morcerf ever come to the Opera? I looked for him with my eyes, and saw him nowhere."

"He will come this evening."

"Where?"

"In the baroness's box, I believe."

"That charming person who is with her, is it her daughter?"

"Yes."

"I congratulate you on it."

Morcerf smiled.

"We will speak of that later and in detail," said he. "What do you say of the music?"

"Of what music?"

"Why, of that you have just heard."

"I say it is very fine music for music composed by a human composer, and sung by two-footed featherless birds, as the late Diogenes used to say."

"Come now, but, my dear count, it would seem that you could hear at your will the seven choirs of paradise?"

"But it is a little of that. When I wish to hear admirable music, vicomte, music such as no mortal ear has ever heard, I sleep."

"Well, but, you are marvelously placed here; sleep, my dear count, sleep, the Opera was not invented for anything else."

"No, truly, your orchestra makes too much noise. For me to sleep the sleep of which I speak, I need calm and silence, and then a certain preparation..."

"Ah! the famous hashish?"

"Exactly, vicomte; whenever you wish to hear music, come and sup with me."

"But I have already heard some in going to lunch there," said Morcerf.

"At Rome?"

"Yes."

"Ah! it was Haydée's guzla. Yes, the poor exile amuses herself sometimes by playing me airs of her country."

Morcerf did not insist further; for his part, the count was silent.

At that moment the bell rang.

"You excuse me?" said the count, taking the way back to his box.

"How not!"

"Carry many things for the Countess G... from her vampire."

"And to the baroness?"

"Tell her that I shall have the honor, if she permits, of going to present my homages to her in the evening."

The third act began. During the third act the Count of Morcerf came, as he had promised, to rejoin Mme Danglars.

The count was not one of those men who make a revolution in a house; so no one perceived his arrival but those in the box where he came to take a place.

Monte Cristo saw him however, and a slight smile passed over his lips.

As for Haydée, she saw nothing while the curtain was up; like all primitive natures, she adored all that speaks to the ear and to the eye.

The third act flowed by as usual; Mlles Noblet, Julia and Leroux executed their ordinary entrechats; the Prince of Granada was defied by Robert-Mario; finally that majestic king you know made the tour of the house to show his velvet mantle, holding his daughter by the hand; then the curtain fell, and the house at once emptied into the foyer and corridors.

The count went out of his box, and an instant after appeared in that of the Baroness Danglars.

The baroness could not prevent herself from uttering a cry of surprise slightly mingled with joy.

"Ah! come then, Monsieur le Comte!" she cried, "for, truly, I was eager to join my verbal graces to the written thanks I have already made you."

"Oh! madame," said the count, "you still recall that trifle? I had already forgotten it, I."

"Yes, but what one does not forget, Monsieur le Comte, is that the next day you saved my good friend Mme de Villefort from the danger your horses had made her run."

"This time again, madame, I do not deserve your thanks; it is Ali, my Nubian, who had the happiness of rendering this eminent service to Mme de Villefort."

"And is it also Ali," said the Count of Morcerf, "who drew my son from the Roman bandits?"

"No, Monsieur le Comte," said Monte Cristo, pressing the hand the general held out to him, "no; this time I take the thanks for my account; but you have already made them to me, I have already received them, and, truly, I am ashamed to find you still so grateful. Do me the honor, I pray you, madame la baronne, of presenting me to mademoiselle your daughter."

"Oh! you are quite presented, by name at least, for it is two or three days since we have spoken of nothing but you. Eugénie," continued the baroness, turning toward her daughter, "Monsieur le Comte de Monte Cristo!"

The count bowed: Mlle Danglars made a slight movement of the head.

"You are there with an admirable person, Monsieur le Comte," said Eugénie; "is it your daughter?"

"No, mademoiselle," said Monte Cristo, astonished at this extreme ingenuousness or at this astonishing assurance; "it is a poor Greek of whom I am the guardian."

"And who is named?..."

"Haydée," replied Monte Cristo.

"A Greek!" murmured the Count of Morcerf.

"Yes, count," said Mme Danglars; "and tell me if you have ever seen at the court of Ali-Tebelin, which you served so gloriously, a costume as admirable as that we have there before our eyes."

"Ah!" said Monte Cristo, "you have served at Janina, Monsieur le Comte?"

"I was general-inspector of the pacha's troops," replied Morcerf, "and my small fortune, I hide it not, comes from the liberalities of the illustrious Albanian chief."

"Look then!" insisted Mme Danglars.

"Where?" stammered Morcerf.

"There!" said Monte Cristo.

And, enveloping the count with his arm, he leaned with him out of the box.

At that moment, Haydée, who was seeking the count with her eyes, perceived his pale head near that of M. de Morcerf, whom he held embraced.

This sight produced on the young girl the effect of the head of Medusa; she made a movement forward as if to devour them both with her gaze, then, almost immediately, she threw herself back, uttering a faint cry, which was nevertheless heard by the persons nearest her and by Ali, who at once opened the door.

"Why," said Eugénie, "what has just happened to your ward, Monsieur le Comte? One would say she is unwell."

"Indeed," said the count, "but do not alarm yourselves, mademoiselle: Haydée is very nervous and consequently very sensitive to odors: a perfume antipathetic to her suffices to make her faint; but," added the count, drawing a flask from his pocket, "I have the remedy there."

And, after having saluted the baroness and her daughter with one and the same salute, he exchanged a last handshake with the count and with Debray, and went out of Mme Danglars's box.

When he entered his own, Haydée was still very pale; hardly had he appeared than she seized his hand. Monte Cristo perceived that the young girl's hands were at once damp and icy.

"With whom then were you talking there, my lord?" asked the young girl.

"Why," replied Monte Cristo, "with the Count of Morcerf, who was in the service of your illustrious father, and who admits owing him his fortune."

"Ah! the wretch!" cried Haydée; "it is he who sold him to the Turks; and this fortune is the price of his treason. Did you not know that, my dear lord?"

"I had already heard a few words of this story told in Epirus," said Monte Cristo, "but I am ignorant of the details. Come, my daughter, you shall give them to me, it must be curious."

"Oh! yes, come, come; it seems to me I should die if I remained any longer face to face with that man."

And Haydée, rising quickly, wrapped herself in her burnous of white cashmere embroidered with pearls and coral, and went out quickly at the moment the curtain was rising.

"See if that man does anything like another!" said the Countess G... to Albert, who had returned to her; "he listens religiously to the third act of Robert, and goes away at the moment the fourth is about to begin."}

“Stories of the world, in your language.”