The Count of Monte Cristo, Part Four. Александр Дюма
Читать онлайн книгу.
are happy.
MONTE CRISTO
And you, Maximilian—aren’t you happy?
MAXIMILIAN
Oh! Me!
(sighing again)
It’s different.
MONTE CRISTO
Why do you sigh? Why are you silent? You distrust me? Maximilian, don’t you like me?
MAXIMILIAN
Me? Wait, what I am going to say to you is strange, Count, for between men, people don’t exchange this kind of confidence. Do I like you? From the moment I saw you, I felt a strange sympathy. I look at you, I try ineffectively to meet you again. Well, although my reason may tell me I never saw you before our meeting on the island of Monte Cristo, it seems to me that we met before; where? I don’t know. Suppose the two souls of Euryal and Nisus found themselves in the generations which followed them—well, my soul near you, would feel something like their souls would have felt.
MONTE CRISTO
Good, Maximilian, it is an act of providence, my friend.
MAXIMILIAN
Also, I’ve wanted to confide in you, Count.
MONTE CRISTO
About what?
MAXIMILIAN
One day when we are quite alone—
MONTE CRISTO
About love?
MAXIMILIAN
Yes.
MONTE CRISTO
Oh, my dear Maximilian, take care! When men like you love, they love with all their being, they love with their heart, they love with their soul, their entire being—their whole future is in their love. Do you think you are loved in return, Maximilian?
MAXIMILIAN
Oh, with a love equal to mine, I am sure.
MONTE CRISTO
Well, then, what’s there to ask of me? Ask God for this love to last, and so that it will last, disdain men, disdain the world—live for your love and in your love.
MAXIMILIAN
Oh! None of our sorrows come from each other. It’s her relatives who wish to marry her to someone else.
MONTE CRISTO
And you are counting on me to combat this opposition?
MAXIMILIAN
Yes.
MONTE CRISTO
Do I know them?
MAXIMILIAN
Perhaps. Eh, you know everyone don’t you—?
MONTE CRISTO
With the result that you want?
MAXIMILIAN
Listen, I know what fairy watched over your birth, my dear Count; but she gave you the power of persuasion. Yes, if I am alone, the relatives of the one I love will make great difficulties about giving her to me. If, on the contrary, the Count of Monte Cristo consents to act as my sponsor I am convinced that all difficulties will vanish before him.
MONTE CRISTO
Listen, Morel, I already told you and I repeat to you, I love you like a son, more than a son. You are right, I can accomplish much when I choose. Well, I choose for you to be happy, and so that you will be happy, I will give not only my fortune, but my blood.
MAXIMILIAN
Ah, Count!
MONTE CRISTO
You know I’m not prodigal with such demonstrations. Come find me at my house in Paris when you wish, #30 Champs Elysees, side by side with the house of Madame de Villefort!
MAXIMILIAN
Door to door, with Madame de Villefort?
MONTE CRISTO
You know her?
MAXIMILIAN
Oh!
MONTE CRISTO
Come when you like. We will lunch together and discuss it further, and you will dispose of your friend in any way you choose.
MAXIMILIAN
You are so good that I want to tell you—
MONTE CRISTO
(seeing Emmanuel enter)
We are no longer alone.
MAXIMILIAN
My brother-in-law, Emmanuel. The Count.
MONTE CRISTO
Come, sir, philosopher, so I can pay you my respect; they present to me a man content with his fortune. I have traveled a lot, Mr. Herbaut, and it’s the first time I’ve met such a prodigy.
EMMANUEL
It’s that we’ve placed our happiness elsewhere, sir.
MONTE CRISTO
Yes, in soft and chaste passions. I know already about that, sir. Also, as just now I was sad and I felt I was on the way to getting worse, I told my coachman, “15 Rue Meslay,” for I knew I’d find calm, innocence and love. The three sacred plants whose balm cures all the complaints of humanity.
MAXIMILIAN
(to Julie as she enters)
Come, take your share of compliments, the Count is treating us. Count, if, since you’ve come to Paris, and don’t yet know what a bourgeois of the Marais is—here’s my sister who will teach you.
MONTE CRISTO
Madame, pardon me an emotion which must astonish you, you who are accustomed to peace and happiness such as I meet here—but for me, the thing is so new, that I cannot stop watching you and your husband.
JULIE
We are indeed happy, in fact, sir, but we have suffered for a long time and few people have paid for their happiness as dearly as we have.
MONTE CRISTO
Ah! Truly! If I were more in your confidence, Maximilian, I would ask you to tell me about that.
MAXIMILIAN
Oh, it’s an entire family history and for you, Count, accustomed to see illustrious misfortunes and splendid joys, it would present little interest. Still, Julie, as you just told him, we suffered many cruel sorrows, until they were shut back up in a little box.
MONTE CRISTO
And God poured consolation on your suffering?
JULIE
Yes, Count, we can say that, for he did for us what he doesn’t do for his elect. He sent us one of his angels.
EMMANUEL
Those who are born in a royal cradle and who have nothing to desire do not know the joy of living, even as those who do not know the price of a pure sky who have never lived their lives at the mercy of four planks, tossed on a sea rolling in fury.
MONTE CRISTO
(rising, emotionally moved)
Yes, you are right, both right.
(He looks at the room.)
MAXIMILIAN
Our magnificence makes you smile, Count—
(Monte Cristo stops before a globe on which is placed the purse Maximilian kissed when he entered.)
MONTE CRISTO
No, I was only considering this purse which