"M. de Morcerf," said the count, "your offer, far from surprising me,
is precisely what I expected from you, and I accept it gladly. I had
previously made up my mind to ask a great favor at your hands."
"Oh, pray name it."
"I am wholly a stranger to Paris it is a city I have never yet seen."
"Is it possible," exclaimed Albert, "that you have been able to live so long without seeing Paris? I can scarcely credit it."
"Nevertheless, it is quite true; still I agree with you in thinking that a longer ignorance of the first city in Europe is impossible; but in all probability, I should have performed this necessary duty, had I known any person who would have introduced me into the fashionable world."
"Oh, a man like you!" cried Albert.
"You are most kind; but as regards myself, I can find no merit I possess, save that, as a millionaire, I might be a rival of M. Aguado and M. Rothschild; but as I do not go to Paris to dabble in the funds, I staid away for the reason mentioned. Your offer, however, decides me, and I have only to ask you, my dear M. de Morcerf" (these words were accompanied by a most peculiar smile), "whether you undertake, upon my arrival in France, to open to me the doors of that world of which I know no more than a Huron or native of Cochin-China."
"Oh, that I do, and with pleasure!" answered Albert, "and so much the more readily as a letter received this morning summons me to Paris to discuss an alliance (my dear Franz, do not smile, I beg of you) with a very agreeable family with good connections in Parisian society."
"Alliance by marriage, you mean," said Franz laughingly.
"Oh, yes!" answered Albert. "So by the time you return to Paris, I shall be quite a sober, staid father of a family. That will suit my natu ral gravity. In any case, my dear count, command me and mine to any extent you please."
"Then it is a settled affair," said the count; "I only waited an oppor tunity like the present to realize schemes I have long meditated."
Franz doubted not that these schemes were the same concerning which he had dropped some words in the grotto of Monte-Cristo; and while the count gave utterance to the expression, the young man closely examined his features in the hope of tracing these projects upon his expressive countenance; but it was impossible to read the thoughts of this man, especially when he hid them with a smile.
"But tell me now, count," exclaimed Albert, delighted at the idea of having to introduce such a person as Monte-Cristo; "is this project one of those of which we make so many, but which, built on the sand, are liable to be blown over by the first puff of wind?"
