Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/186

166 ridiculous in me to regulate my conduct by such caprices. I shall still continue to preserve the same respect toward M. Noirtier; I will suffer, without complaint, the pecuniary deprivation to which he has subjected me; but I will remain firm in my determination, and the world shall see which party has reason on his side. Consequently I shall marry my daughter to the Baron Franz d'Epinay, because I consider it would be a proper and eligible match, and, in short, because I choose to bestow my daughter's hand on whomsoever I please."

"What!" said the count, the approbation of whose eye Villefort had frequently solicited during this speech. "What! do you say that M. Noirtier disinherits Mademoiselle de Villefort because she is going to marry M. le Baron Franz d'Epinay?"

"Yes, sir, that is the reason," said Villefort, shrugging his shoulders.

"The apparent reason, at least," said Madame de Villefort.

"The real reason, madame, I can assure you; I know my father."

"But I want to know," said Madame de Villefort, "in what way M. d'Epinay can have displeased your father more than any other person?"

"I believe I know M. Franz d'Epinay," said the count; "is he not the son of General de Quesnel, who was created Baron d'Epinay by Charles X.?"

"The same," said Villefort.

"Well! but he is a charming young man, according to my ideas."

"He is, which makes me believe that it is only an excuse of M. Noirtier's; old men are always so selfish in their affection; M. Noirtier does not wish his granddaughter to marry," said Madame de Villefort.

"But," said Monte-Cristo, "do you not know any cause for this hatred?"

"Ah, ma foi! who is to know?"

"Perhaps it is some political difference?"

"My father and the Baron d'Epinay lived in those stormy times of which I have only seen the few last days," said Villefort.

"Was not your father a Bonapartist?" asked Monte-Cristo; "I think I remember that you told me something of that kind."

"My father has been a Jacobin more than anything else," said Villefort, carried by his emotion beyond the bounds of prudence; "and the senator's robe, which Napoleon cast on his shoulders, only served to disguise the old man without in any degree changing him. When my father conspired, it was not for the emperor, it was against the Bourbons; for M. Noirtier possessed this peculiarity, he never projected any Utopian schemes which could never be realized, but strove for possibilities, and he applied to the realization of these possibilities the terrible theories of the Mountain, which never shrank from any means."