Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/82

 

HE pretext of an opera engagement was so much the more feasible, as there chanced to be on that very night a more than ordinary attraction at the Académie Royale.

Levasseur, who had been suffering under severe illness, made his reappearance in the character of Bertram, and, as usual, the announcement of the production of the favorite composer had attracted the very éliteof Parisian fashion. Morcerf, like most other young men of rank and fortune, had his orchestra stall, With the certainty of always finding a seat in at least a dozen of the principal boxes occupied by persons of his acquaintance; he had, moreover, his right of entry into the omnibus-box. Château-Renaud rented a stall beside his own, while Beauchamp, in his editorial capacity, had unlimited range all over the theater.

It happened that on that particular night the minister's box was placed at the disposal of Lucien Debray, who offered it to the Count de Morcerf, who again, upon his rejection of it by Mercédès, sent it to Danglars, with an intimation that he should probably do himself the honor of joining the baroness and her daughter during the evening, in the event of their accepting the box in question. The ladies received the offer with too much pleasure to dream of a refusal. To no class of persons is the presentation of a gratuitous opera-box more acceptable than to the wealthy millionaire.

Danglars had, however, declared that his political principles, as well as being a member of the opposition party, would not permit him to enter the minister's box; the baroness had, therefore, dispatched a note to Lucien Debray, bidding him call for them, it being wholly impossible for her to go alone with her daughter to the opera.

There is no gainsaying the plain fact that a very unfavorable construction would have been put upon the circumstance of two ladies