The Count of Monte Cristo Read Online Free PDF Page B

believe I see double. You know wine is a deceiver; but I should say it was two lovers walking side by side, and hand in hand. Heaven forgive me, they do not know that we can see them, and they are actually embracing!"
    Danglars did not lose one pang that Fernand endured.
    "Do you know them, Fernand?" he said.
    "Yes," was the reply, in a low voice. "It is Edmond and Mercedes!"
    "Ah, see there, now!" said Caderousse; "and I did not recognize them! Hallo, Dantes! hello, lovely damsel! Come this way, and let us know when the wedding is to be, for Fernand here is so obstinate he will not tell us."
    "Hold your tongue, will you?" said Danglars, pretending to restrain Caderousse, who, with the tenacity of drunkards, leaned out of the arbor. "Try to stand upright, and let the lovers make love without interruption. See, look at Fernand, and follow his example; he is well–behaved!"
    Fernand, probably excited beyond bearing, pricked by Danglars, as the bull is by the bandilleros, was about to rush out; for he had risen from his seat, and seemed to be collecting himself to dash headlong upon his rival, when Mercedes, smiling and graceful, lifted up her lovely head, and looked at them with her clear and bright eyes. At this Fernand recollected her threat of dying if Edmond died, and dropped again heavily on his seat. Danglars looked at the two men, one after the other, the one brutalized by liquor, the other overwhelmed with love.
    "I shall get nothing from these fools," he muttered; "and I am very much afraid of being here between a drunkard and a coward. Here's an envious fellow making himself boozy on wine when he ought to be nursing his wrath, and here is a fool who sees the woman he loves stolen from under his nose and takes on like a big baby. Yet this Catalan has eyes that glisten like those of the vengeful Spaniards, Sicilians, and Calabrians, and the other has fists big enough to crush an ox at one blow. Unquestionably, Edmond's star is in the ascendant, and he will marry the splendid girl—he will be captain, too, and laugh at us all, unless"—a sinister smile passed over Danglars' lips—"unless I take a hand in the affair," he added.
    "Hallo!" continued Caderousse, half–rising, and with his fist on the table, "hallo, Edmond! do you not see your friends, or are you too proud to speak to them?"
    "No, my dear fellow!" replied Dantes, "I am not proud, but I am happy, and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride."
    "Ah, very well, that's an explanation!" said Caderousse. "How do you do, Madame Dantes?"
    Mercedes courtesied gravely, and said—"That is not my name, and in my country it bodes ill fortune, they say, to call a young girl by the name of her betrothed before he becomes her husband. So call me Mercedes, if you please."
    "We must excuse our worthy neighbor, Caderousse," said Dantes, "he is so easily mistaken."
    "So, then, the wedding is to take place immediately, M. Dantes," said Danglars, bowing to the young couple.
    "As soon as possible, M. Danglars; to–day all preliminaries will be arranged at my father's, and to–morrow, or next day at latest, the wedding festival here at La Reserve. My friends will be there, I hope; that is to say, you are invited, M. Danglars, and you, Caderousse."
    "And Fernand," said Caderousse with a chuckle; "Fernand, too, is invited!"
    "My wife's brother is my brother," said Edmond; "and we, Mercedes and I, should be very sorry if he were absent at such a time."
    Fernand opened his mouth to reply, but his voice died on his lips, and he could not utter a word.
    "To–day the preliminaries, to–morrow or next day the ceremony! You are in a hurry, captain!"
    "Danglars," said Edmond, smiling, "I will say to you as Mercedes said just now to Caderousse, "Do not give me a title which does not belong to me"; that may bring me bad luck."
    "Your pardon," replied Danglars, "I merely said you seemed in a hurry, and we have lots of time; the Pharaon cannot be under weigh again in less than three