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159 suppose it was addressed to him, he suffered Albert to retain it. Albert placed it in his button-hole, and the carriage went triumphantly on.

"Well," said Franz to him; "here is the commencement of an adventure."

"Laugh if you please—I really think so. So I will not abandon this bouquet."

"Pardieu!" returned Franz, laughing, "it is a sign of recognition."

The jest, however, soon appeared to become earnest; for when Albert and Franz again encountered the carriage with the contacting the one who had thrown the violets to Albert clapped her hands when she beheld them in his button-hole.

"Bravo! bravo!" said Franz; "things go wonderfully. Shall I leave you? Perhaps you would prefer being alone?"

"No," replied he; "I will not be caught like a fool at a first demon stration by a rendezvous beneath the clock, as they say at the opera-balls. If the fair peasant wishes to carry matters any further, we shall find her, or, rather, she will find us, to-morrow; then she will give me some sign or other, and I shall know what I have to do."

"On my word," said Franz, "you are as wise as Nestor and prudent as Ulysses, and your fair Circe must be very skillful or very powerful if she succeed in changing you into a beast of any kind."

Albert was right. The fair unknown had resolved, doubtless, to carry the intrigue no farther; for although the young men made several more turns, they did not again see the caleche, which had turned up one of the neighboring streets. Then they returned to the Rospoli Palace; but the count and the blue domino had also disappeared; the two windows, hung with yellow damask, were still occupied by the persons whom the count had invited.

At this moment the same bell that had proclaimed the commencement of the mascherata sounded the retreat. The line on the Corso broke, and in a second all the carriages had disappeared. Franz and Albert were opposite the Via delle Maratte; the coachman, without say ing a word, drove up to it, passed along the Piazza di Spagna, and past the Rospoli Palace till he stopped at the door of the hotel. Maitre Pastrini came to the door to receive his guests.

Franz's first care was to inquire after the count, and to express his regret that he had not returned in sufficient time to take him; but Pastrini re-assured him by saying that the Count of Monte-Cristo had ordered a second carriage for himself, and that it had gone at four o'clock to fetch him from the Rospoli Palace.

The count had, moreover, charged him to offer the two friends the key of his box at the Argentina. Franz questioned Albert as to his intentions; but Albert had great projects to put into execution before