Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 4).djvu/63

Rh drinking something that it likes. At this moment two women entered, bringing salvers filled with ices and sherbet, which they placed on two small tables appropriated to that purpose.

"My dear host, and you, signora," said Albert, in Italian, "excuse my apparent stupidity. I am quite bewildered, and it is natural that it should be so. Here I am in the heart of Paris; but a moment ago I heard the rumbling of the omnibuses and the tinkling of the bells of the lemonade-sellers, and now I am transported to the East; not such as I have seen it, but such as my dreams have painted it. Oh! signora, if I could but speak Greek, your conversation, added to the fairy-scene which surrounds me, would furnish an evening that I could never forget."

"I speak sufficient Italian to converse with you, sir," said Haydée, quietly;" and if you like what is Eastern, I will do my best to make you find it here."

"On what subject shall I converse with her?" said Albert, in a low tone to Monte-Cristo.

"Just what you please; her country, her youthful reminiscences; or, if you like it better, you can talk of Rome, Naples, or Florence."

"Oh!" said Albert, "it is of no use to be in the company of a Greek if one converses just in the same style as with a Parisian; let me speak to her of the East."

"Do so, then, for of all themes that will be the most agreeable."

Albert turned toward Haydée. "At what age did you leave Greece, signora?" asked he.

"When I was but five years old," replied Haydée.

"And have you any recollection of your country?"

"When I shut my eyes I see it all again. The mind has its eyes as well as the body; the former may forget; the latter always remembers."

"And how far back into the past do your recollections extend?"

"I could scarcely walk when my mother, who was called Vasiliki, which means royal," said the young girl, tossing her head proudly, "took me by the hand, and after putting in our purse all the money we possessed, we went out, both covered with veils, to solicit alms for the prisoners, saying, 'He who giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord.' Then, when our purse was full, we returned to the palace, and without saying a word to my father, we sent all the money that had been given to us, as poor women, to the hegonmenos of the convent, where it was divided amongst the prisoners."

"And how old were you at that time?"

"I was three years old," said Haydée.