Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 2).djvu/324

306 I have heard from the Abbe Busoni himself, and which I recommend you to treasure up: that all earthly ills yield to two all-potent remedies—time and silence. And now leave me; I would enjoy the cool solitude of this place. What causes you, as a principal in the tragic scene, such painful emotions, will be to me, on the contrary, a source of extreme delight, and serve but to enhance the value of this dwelling. Trees, Bertuccio, please us by their shade, and the shade pleases us because it is full of dreams and visions. I bought a garden, thinking I had bought a mere inclosure with walls round it, and nothing more. I find this iuclosure a garden full of phantoms, not specified in the bill of sale. I like phantoms, and I have never heard it said that so much harm had been done by the dead during six thousand years as is wrought by the living in one single day. Retire, Bertuccio, and sleep in peace. Should your confessor be less indulgent to you in your dying moments than you found the Abbe Busoni, send for me, if I am still on earth, and I will soothe your ears with words that shall effectually calm and soothe your parting soul ere it goes forth to that 'bourne from whence no traveler returns.'"

Bertuccio bowed lowly and respectfully, and turned away, sighing heavily as he quitted his patron. When he had quite disappeared, Monte-Cristo arose, and, taking three or four steps onward, he murmured:

"Here, beneath this plane-tree, must have been where the infant's grave was dug. There is the little door opening into the garden. At this corner is the private staircase communicating with the sleeping-apartment. There will be no necessity for me to make a note of these particulars, for there, before my eyes, beneath my feet, all around me, I have the plan sketched with all the living reality of truth."

After making the tour of the garden a second time, the count regained the house and reentered his carriage; while Bertuccio, who perceived the thoughtful expression of his master's features, took his seat beside the driver without uttering a word. The carriage proceeded rapidly toward Paris.

That same evening, upon reaching his abode in the Champs Elysees, the Count of Monte-Cristo went over the whole building with the air of one long acquainted with it. Nor, although preceding the party, did he once mistake one door for another, or commit the smallest error when choosing any particular corridor or staircase to conduct him to a place or suite of rooms he desired to visit. AH was his principal attendant during the somewhat late hour of his survey. Having given various orders to Bertuccio relative to the improvements and alterations he desired to make in the house, the count, drawing out his watch, said to the attentive Nubian.