Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/250

230 "Pardon me," said he, "my dear baron, but one of my friends, the Abbe" Busoni, whom you perhaps saw pass by, has just arrived in Paris; not having seen him for a long time, I could not make up my mind to leave him sooner, so I hope this will be sufficient reason for my having made you wait."

"Nay," said Danglars, "it is my fault; I have chosen a wrong time, and will retire."

"Not at all; on the contrary, be seated. But what is the matter with you? You look careworn; really, you alarm me! For a capitalist to be sad, like the appearance of a comet, presages some misfortune to the world."

"I have been in ill-luck for several days," said Danglars, "and I have heard nothing but bad news."

"Ah, indeed!" said Monte-Cristo. "Have you had another fall at the Bourse?"

"No; I am safe for a few days at least. I am only annoyed about a bankrupt of Trieste."

"Really! Does it happen to be Jacopo Manfredi?"

"Exactly so. Imagine a man who has transacted business with me for I do not know how long, to the amount of eight hundred thousand or nine hundred thousand francs during the year. Never a mistake or delay: a fellow who paid like a prince. Well, I was a million in advance with him, and now my fine Jacopo Manf redi suspends payment!"

"Really?"

"It is an unheard-of fatality. I draw upon him for six hundred thousand francs, my bills are returned unpaid, and, more than that, I hold bills of exchange signed by him to the value of four hundred thousand francs, payable at his correspondent's in Paris at the end of this month. To-day is the 30th. I present them; but my correspondent has disappeared. This, with my Spanish affairs, made a pretty end to the month."

"Then you really lost by that affair in Spain?"

"Yes: only seven hundred thousand francs out of my cash-box!—nothing more!"

"Why, how could you make such a mistake—such an old stager?"

"Oh, it is all my wife's fault. She dreamed Don Carlos had returned to Spain; she believes in dreams. It is magnetism, she says; and when she dreams a thing it is sure to happen, she assures me. On this conviction I allow her to speculate; she has her bank and her stockbroker; she speculated and lost. It is tine she speculates with her own money, not mine; nevertheless, you can understand that when seven hundred