"Well, I shall see.I will try and think over what is the best thing to be done; you will give me your advice, will you not, and if possible extricate me from my unpleasant position? I think, rather than give pain to my dear mother, I would run the risk of offending the count." Monte Cristo turned away; he seemed moved by this last remark."Ah," said he to Debray, who had thrown himself into an easy-chair at the farthest extremity of the salon, and who held a pencil in his right hand and an account book in his left, "what are you doing there? Are you making a sketch after Poussin?""Oh, no," was the tranquil response; "I am too fond of art to attempt anything of that sort.I am doing a little sum in arithmetic.""In arithmetic?"
"Yes; I am calculating -- by the way, Morcerf, that indirectly concerns you -- I am calculating what the house of Danglars must have gained by the last rise in Haiti bonds; from 206 they have risen to 409 in three days, and the prudent banker had purchased at 206; therefore he must have made 300,000 livres.""That is not his biggest scoop," said Morcerf; "did he not make a million in Spaniards this last year?""My dear fellow," said Lucien, "here is the Count of Monte Cristo, who will say to you, as the Italians do, --"`Danaro e santita, Meta della meta.'*
* "Money and sanctity, Each in a moiety.
"When they tell me such things, I only shrug my shoulders and say nothing.""But you were speaking of Haitians?" said Monte Cristo.
"Ah, Haitians, -- that is quite another thing! Haitians are the ecarte of French stock-jobbing.We may like bouillotte, delight in whist, be enraptured with boston, and yet grow tired of them all; but we always come back to ecarte -- it is not only a game, it is a hors-d'oeuvre! M.Danglars sold yesterday at 405, and pockets 300,000 francs.Had he but waited till to-day, the price would have fallen to 205, and instead of gaining 300,000 francs, he would have lost 20 or 25,000.""And what has caused the sudden fall from 409 to 206?" asked Monte Cristo."I am profoundly ignorant of all these stock-jobbing intrigues.""Because," said Albert, laughing, "one piece of news follows another, and there is often great dissimilarity between them.""Ah," said the count, "I see that M.Danglars is accustomed to play at gaining or losing 300,000 francs in a day; he must be enormously rich.""It is not he who plays!" exclaimed Lucien; "it is Madame Danglars: she is indeed daring.""But you who are a reasonable being, Lucien, and who know how little dependence is to be placed on the news, since you are at the fountain-head, surely you ought to prevent it,"said Morcerf, with a smile.
"How can I, if her husband fails in controlling her?" asked Lucien; "you know the character of the baroness -- no one has any influence with her, and she does precisely what she pleases.""Ah, if I were in your place" -- said Albert.
"Well?"
"I would reform her; it would be rendering a service to her future son-in-law.""How would you set about it?"
"Ah, that would be easy enough -- I would give her a lesson.""A lesson?"
"Yes.Your position as secretary to the minister renders your authority great on the subject of political news; you never open your mouth but the stockbrokers immediately stenograph your words.Cause her to lose a hundred thousand francs, and that would teach her prudence.""I do not understand," stammered Lucien.
"It is very clear, notwithstanding," replied the young man, with an artlessness wholly free from affectation; "tell her some fine morning an unheard-of piece of intelligence --some telegraphic despatch, of which you alone are in possession; for instance, that Henri IV.was seen yesterday at Gabrielle's.That would boom the market; she will buy heavily, and she will certainly lose when Beauchamp announces the following day, in his gazette, `The report circulated by some usually well-informed persons that the king was seen yesterday at Gabrielle's house, is totally without foundation.We can positively assert that his majesty did not quit the Pont-Neuf.'" Lucien half smiled.
Monte Cristo, although apparently indifferent, had not lost one word of this conversation, and his penetrating eye had even read a hidden secret in the embarrassed manner of the secretary.This embarrassment had completely escaped Albert, but it caused Lucien to shorten his visit; he was evidently ill at ease.The count, in taking leave of him, said something in a low voice, to which he answered, "Willingly, count; I accept." The count returned to young Morcerf.
"Do you not think, on reflection," said he to him, "that you have done wrong in thus speaking of your mother-in-law in the presence of M.Debray?""My dear count," said Morcerf, "I beg of you not to apply that title so prematurely.""Now, speaking without any exaggeration, is your mother really so very much averse to this marriage?""So much so that the baroness very rarely comes to the house, and my mother, has not, I think, visited Madame Danglars twice in her whole life.""Then," said the count, "I am emboldened to speak openly to you.M.Danglars is my banker; M.de Villefort has overwhelmed me with politeness in return for a service which a casual piece of good fortune enabled me to render him.Ipredict from all this an avalanche of dinners and routs.