The Son of Monte-Cristo The Son Of Monte Cristo Part 76

"Half-past ten."

"Send a footman to tell Monsieur de Laisangy that I am waiting for him to come to breakfast."

"But are you not going to dress?" asked the woman in surprise.

"What for? I am not going out until four o'clock."

"Yes, but you will not care to go to the dining-room in your peignoir?"

"No, I will breakfast here in my boudoir."

"With Monsieur de Laisangy?"

"Yes. You look astonished. I do not like such airs. Arrange that small table, and wait upon us yourself."

"Very good, Mademoiselle."

As the woman left the room, she said to herself:

"They are certainly very queer people, but it is none of my business if a young lady chooses to breakfast half dressed with her father!"

In less than fifteen minutes the banker knocked at the door of the boudoir. He took his daughter's hand and pressed a paternal kiss upon it. As they were alone, Carmen withdrew her hand, and said quickly:

"None of that, if you please!"

The old man looked strangely disturbed, and fearing that these words had been spoken in too audible a voice, he laid a warning finger on his lip.

They presently seated themselves at the table. The breakfast was served _a la Russe_--that is, with every thing on the table at once.

"You can leave us," said Carmen to her maid.

Laisangy ate heartily, but Carmen merely nibbled. The banker did not speak until he had eaten so much he could eat no more. He drank only water.

Carmen began to be impatient.

"It seems to me that I was never so hungry in my life before!" said Laisangy.

"Ah!" answered Carmen, "and yet there were times in your life when you were starving!"

Laisangy was eating a bit of cheese. He stopped with his fork in the air.

"We will not talk of that!" he replied.

"And why not? Everybody is not born with a million in his cradle. I, too, have been near starvation!"

"Carmen!"

"It is true, but pray finish your breakfast. I want to talk to you."

If Goutran, a.s.sisted by some magician, had been able to see and hear this interview, he would have been thunderstruck. What a tone! What an expression! Not that she was less pretty, but there was a something in her manner and appearance which would have offended his taste.

Laisangy finally stopped eating. Any other person would have been crimson after such a meal, but he actually looked paler than ever.

Carmen rang the bell for coffee, and then they were again alone.

"My dear Carmen, I am ready to listen to you," said the banker. She had lighted a cigarette, and was smoking, with her eyes fixed on him.

"You want money, I suppose?"

"No--I want information."

"Information!"

"Ah! that makes you uneasy, does it not? I am well aware that you are not fond of questions."

Laisangy, who was drinking his third cup of coffee, shivered a little at these words.

"I do not understand you," he said.

"You will, presently. But I never saw anybody with such an appet.i.te.

When I was sixteen and could hardly get a crust of bread, I could not eat like that."

"Why dwell on these memories, Carmen?"

"Because, if I remind you of what and who I am, I shall have a better chance, perhaps, to learn who you are."

"Carmen! Carmen!" said the old man imploringly, and becoming even paler than before.

"I tell you that I intend to know who you are. Now hold your tongue and let me speak. I have had a weight on my heart for a long time, and now I intend to make a clean breast of it."

No words can describe the terror on the face of the banker. He stammered and choked.

"But, Carmen, we are so comfortable and happy. What do you want more?"

"I wish to have my curiosity satisfied," answered Carmen, coldly.

"Everything about you is a mystery and a fraud. In fact, you terrify me!"

"But----"

"Yes--even your way of eating is not natural. There is something of the wild beast about you, and I tell you I am afraid!"

"But this is childish. You have known me a long time."

"Yes. I am twenty-two now, and I was fifteen when you took me, while Mamma Lousteau was your cook at Florence--"

"Hush! Carmen, you will be heard!"

"Who cares! Yes, the whole world may hear the story of a girl whose mother was cook in a banker's house. The banker entered the girl's room in the night, the mother discovered it. Her rage and distress brought on an attack of apoplexy. She died, and I remained with you! These are the bare facts."