Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/131

 

HE Count of Monte-Cristo entered the adjoining room, which Baptistin had designated as the blue drawing-room, and found there a young man, of graceful demeanor and elegant appearance, who had arrived in a fiacreabout half an hour previously. Baptistin had not found any difficulty in recognizing him. He was certainly the tall young man with light hair, red beard, black eyes, and brilliant complexion, whom his master had so particularly described to him. When the count entered the room the young man was carelessly stretched on a sofa, tapping his boot with the gold-headed cane which he held in his hand. On perceiving the count he rose quickly.

"The Count of Monte-Cristo, I believe," said he.

"Yes, sir, and I think I have the honor of addressing M. le Vicomte Andrea Cavalcanti?"

"Vicomte Andrea Cavalcanti," repeated the young man, accompanying his words with a bow.

"You are charged with a letter of introduction addressed to me, are you not?" said the count.

"I did not mention that, because the signature seemed to me so strange."

"Sindbad the Sailor, is it not?"

"Exactly so. Now, as I have never known any Sindbad, with the exception of the one in the 'Arabian Nights'"

"Well! it is one of his descendants, and a great friend of mine; he is a very rich Englishman, eccentric almost to insanity; and his real name is Lord Wilmore."

"Ah! indeed! then that explains everything," said Andrea; "that is extraordinary. He is, then, the same Englishman whom I met—at—yes, very well! M. le Comte, I am at your service."