Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 1).djvu/52

32 from his seat, and seemed to be collecting himself to dash headlong upon his rival, when Mercédès, smiling and graceful, lifted up her lovely head, and showed her clear and bright eye. At this Fernand recollected her threat of dying if Edmond died, and dropped again despairingly on his seat. Danglars looked at the two men, one after the other, the one brutalized by liquor, the other overwhelmed with love.

"I shall extract nothing from these fools," he muttered; "and I am very much afraid of being here between a drunkard and a coward. Here is a man deservedly crazy, who fuddles himself with wine, while he ought to intoxicate himself with gall; there is a great idiot whose mistress is taken from under his very eyes, and who does nothing but weep and whine like a baby. Yet this Catalan has eyes that glisten, like the Spaniards, Sicilians, and Calabrians, who practice revenge so well; he has fists that would crush the skull of an ox as surely as the butcher's ax. Unquestionably, Edmond's star is in the ascendant, and he will marry the splendid girl—he will be captain, too, and laugh at us all, unless—" a sinister smile passed over Danglars' lips—"unless I mingle in the affair," he added.

"Halloo!" continued Caderousse, half rising, and with his fist on the table, "halloo, Edmond! do you not see your friends, or are you too proud to speak to them?"

"No, my dear fellow!" replied Dantès," I am not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride."

"Ah! very well, that's an explanation!" said Caderousse. "Well, good-day, Madame Dantès!"

Mercédès courtesied gravely, and said—"That is not my name, and in my country it bodes ill-fortune, they say, to call young girls by the name of their betrothed before he becomes their husband. Call me, then, Mercédès, if you please."

"We must excuse our worthy neighbor, Caderousse," said Dantès, "he is so easily mistaken."

"So, then, the wedding is to take place immediately, M. Dantès?" said Danglars, bowing to the young couple.

"As soon as possible, M. Danglars; to-day all preliminaries will be arranged at my father's, and to-morrow, or next day at latest, the wedding festival here at La Réserve. My friends will be there, I hope; that is to say, you are invited, M. Danglars, and you, Caderousse."

"And Fernand," said Caderousse with a chuckle; "Fernand, too, is invited!"

"My wife's brother is my brother," said Edmond; "and we, Mercédès and I, should be very sorry if he were absent at such a time."

Fernand opened his mouth to reply, but his voice died on his lips, and he could not utter a word.