Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 2).djvu/47

 

HE delay afforded by the agent of the house of Thomson and French, at the moment when Morrel expected it least, appeared to the poor ship-owner one of those returns of good fortune which announce to a man that Fate is at length weary of wasting her spite upon him. The same day he related to his wife, to Emmanuel, and his daughter what had occurred to him; and a ray of hope, if not tranquillity, returned to the family. Unfortunately, however, Morrel had not only engagements with the house of Thomson and French, who had shown themselves so considerate toward him; and, as he had said, in business men have correspondents, and not friends. When he reflected deeply, he could by no means account for this generous conduct on the part of Thomson and French toward him, and could only attribute it to the selfish reflection of the firm: "We had better support a man who owes us nearly three hundred thousand francs, and have those three hundred thousand francs at the end of three months than hasten his ruin, and have six or eight per cent, of dividend."

Unfortunately, whether from hate or blindness, all Morrel's correspondents did not reflect similarly; and some made even a contrary reflection. The bills signed by Morrel were thus presented at his office with scrupulous exactitude, and, thanks to the delay granted by the Englishman, were paid by Cocles with equal punctuality. Cocles thus remained in his accustomed tranquillity. It was Morrel alone who remembered with alarm that if he had to pay on the 15th the fifty thousand francs of M. de Boville, and on the 30th the thirty-two thousand five hundred francs of bills, for which, as well as the debt due to the inspector of prisons, he had time granted, he must be a ruined man.

The opinion of all the commercial men was that, under the reverses which had successively weighed down Morrel, it was impossible for