"Come, come, you are going on quickly, M. Benedetto!"
"Yes, and to the point! Let us dispense with useless words. Who sends you?"
"No one."
"How did you know I was in prison?"
"I recognized you, some time since, as the insolent dandy who so gracefully mounted his horse in the Champs Elysées."
"Oh, the Champs Elysées! Ah, ah! we burn, as they say at hide-and-seek. The Champs Elysées! Come, let us talk a little about my father!"
"Who, then, am I?"
"You, sir! you are my adopted father. But it was not you, I presume, who placed at my disposal one hundred thousand francs, which I spent in four or five months; it was not you who manufactured an Italian gentleman for my father; it was not you who introduced me into the world, and had me invited to a certain dinner at Auteuil, which I fancy I am eating at this moment, in company with the most distinguished people in Paris—among the rest, with a certain procureur du roi, whose acquaintance I did very wrong not to cultivate, for he would have been very useful to me just now;—it was not you, in fact, who bailed me for one or two millions, when the fatal discovery of the pot aux roses took place. Come, speak, my worthy Corsican, speak!"
"What do you wish me to say?"
"I will help you. You were speaking of the Champs Elysées just now, worthy foster-father!"
"Well?"
"Well, in the Champs Elysées there resides a very rich gentleman."
"At whose house you robbed and murdered, did you not?"
"I believe I did."
"The Count of Monte-Cristo?"
"You have named him. Well, I am to rush into his arms, and strain him to my heart, crying, as Pixerecourt does in the dramas, 'My father! my father!'"
"Do not let us jest," gravely replied Bertuccio; "and dare not to utter that name again as you have pronounced it."
"Bah!" said Andrea, a little overcome by the solemnity of Bertuccio's manner, "why not?"
"Because the person who bears it is too highly favored by Heaven be the father of such a wretch as you!"
"Oh, these are fine words!"
"And there will be fine doings, if you do not take care!"
"Menaces!—I do not fear them. I will stay———"
