Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/24

4 trustful by habit, and especially incredulous as to social marvels, was much more disposed to see in the noble stranger, as Monte-Cristo was already called, a chevalier d'industrie, who had come to try new ground, or some malefactor who had broken his prescribed limits, than a prince of the Holy See, or a sultan of the Arabian Nights.

"Sir," said Villefort, in the tone assumed by magistrates in their oratorical periods, and of which they cannot, or will not, divest them selves in society, "Sir, the signal service which you yesterday rendered to my wife and son has made it a duty in me to offer you my thanks. Allow me, therefore, to discharge this duty, and to express to you all my gratitude."

And as he said this, the "eye severe" of the magistrate had lost nothing of its habitual arrogance.

These words he articulated in the voice of a procureur-général, with the rigid inflexibility of neck and shoulders which caused his flatterers to say (as we have said before) that he was the living statue of the law.

"Monsieur," replied the count, with a chilling air, "I am very happy to have been the means of preserving a son to his mother, for they say that the sentiment of maternity is the most holy of all; and the good fortune which occurred to me, monsieur, might have enabled you to dispense with a duty which, in its discharge, confers an undoubtedly great honor; for I am aware that M. de Villefort is not lavish of the favor he bestows on me, but which, however estimable, is unequal to the satisfaction which I internally experience."

Villefort, astonished at this reply, which he by no means expected, started like the soldier who feels the blow leveled at him over the armor he wears, and a curl of his disdainful lip indicated that from that moment he noted in the tablets of his brain that the Count of Monte-Cristo was by no means a very civil gentleman.

He glanced around in order to seize on something on which the conversation might be renewed. He saw the map which Monte-Cristo had been examining when he entered, and said:

"You seem geographically engaged, sir. It is a rich study for you, who, as I learn, have seen as many lands as are delineated on this map."

"Yes, sir," replied the count; "I have sought to make on the human race, taken as a mass, what you practice every day on individuals—a physiological study. I have believed it was much easier to descend from the whole to a part, than to ascend from a part to the whole. It is an algebraic axiom which makes us proceed from a known to an unknown quantity, and not from an unknown to a known; but sit down, sir, I beg of you."