Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 5).djvu/133

 

N the house in the Rue Saint-Germain-des-Prés, chosen by Albert and Madame de Morcerf for their residence, the first floor, consisting of one room, was let to a very mysterious person. This was a man whose face the concierge himself had never seen either coming in or going out; for in the winter his chin was buried in one of those large red handkerchiefs worn by gentlemen's coachmen on a cold night at the door of the theater, and in the summer he made a point of always blowing his nose just as he approached the door. Contrary to custom, this gentleman had not been watched, for, as the report ran that he was a person of high rank, and one who had a long arm, his incognito was strictly respected. His visits were tolerably regular, though occasionally he appeared a little before or after his time, but generally, both in summer and winter, he took possession of his apartment about four o'clock, though he never spent the night there. At halfpast three in the winter the fire was lighted by the discreet servant, who had the superintendence of the little apartment; and in the summer ices were placed on the table at the same hour. At four o'clock, as we have already stated, the mysterious personage arrived.

Twenty minutes afterward a carriage stopped at the house, a lady alighted in a black or dark-blue dress, and always thickly veiled; she passed like a shadow through the lodge, and ran upstairs without a sound escaping under the touch of her light foot. No one ever asked her where she was going. Her face, therefore, like that of the gentleman, was perfectly unknown to the two concierges, who of all the confraternity were, perhaps, unequaled throughout the capital for discretion. We need not say she stopped at the first floor. Then she scratched at a door in a peculiar manner, which, after being opened to admit her, was again fastened, and all was done. The same precautions were used