The landlord preceded the friends across the landing, which was all
that separated them from the apartments of the count, rang at the bell,
and upon the door being opened by a servant, said:
"Il Signori Francesi."
The domestic bowed respectfully, and invited them to enter. They passed through two rooms, furnished with a style and luxury they had not calculated on finding under the roof of Maitre Pastrini, and were shown into an elegantly fitted-up salon. Turkey carpets covered the floor, and soft couches offered their high-piled and yielding cushions; splendid paintings by the first masters were mingled with trophies of war, while heavy curtains of tapestry were suspended before the doors.
"If your excellencies will please to be seated," said the man, "I will let M. le Comte know you are here."
And with these words he disappeared behind one of the portieres.
As the door opened, the sound of a guzla reached the ears of the young men, but was almost immediately lost, for the rapid closing of the door merely allowed one breath of harmony to enter the salon.
Franz and Albert looked inquiringly at each other, then at the gorgeous fittings-up of the apartments.
All seemed even more splendid at a second view than it had done at their first rapid survey.
"Well," said Franz to his friend, "what think you of all this?"
"Why, upon my soul, my dear fellow, it strikes me our neighbor must either be some stock-jobber who has beared the Spanish funds or some prince traveling incog."
"Hush! hush," replied Franz, "we shall ascertain who and what he is he comes!"
As Franz spoke, he heard the sound of a door turning on its hinges, and almost immediately afterward the tapestry was drawn aside, and the owner of all these riches stood before the two young men.
Albert instantly rose to meet him, but Franz remained, in a manner, spell-bound on his chair, for in the person of him who had just entered he recognized not only the mysterious visitant to the Colosseum and the occupant of the loge at the Salle Argentine, but also his singular host of Monte-Cristo.
