Read Online The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged Penguin) by Alexandre Dumas - Free Book Online Page B

the sweat from his brow and slowly made his way under the vault of leaves: its shade appeared to do something to calm his spirits and its coolness to bring a small measure of well-being back to his exhausted body.
    ‘Good day,’ he said. ‘I think you called me?’
    ‘I called you because you were running along like a madmanand I was afraid you would go and throw yourself into the sea,’ Caderousse said with a laugh. ‘Devil take it, when one has friends, it is not only to offer them a glass of wine, but also to stop them drinking three or four pints of water.’
    Fernand gave a groan that resembled a sob and let his head fall on to his wrists, which were crossed on the table.
    ‘Well now, do you want me to tell you what, Fernand?’ Caderousse continued, coming straight to the point with that crude brutality of the common man whose curiosity makes him forget any sense of tact. ‘You look to me like a man who has been crossed in love!’ He accompanied this quip with a roar of laughter.
    ‘Huh!’ Danglars retorted. ‘A lad built like that is not likely to be unhappy in love. You must be joking, Caderousse.’
    ‘Not at all,’ the other said. ‘Just listen to him sigh. Come, Fernand, come now, lift your nose off the table and tell us: it is not very mannerly to refuse to answer your friends when they are asking after your health.’
    ‘My health is fine,’ said Fernand, clenching his fists and without looking up.
    ‘Ah, Danglars, you see now,’ Caderousse said, winking at his friend. ‘This is how things are: Fernand here, who is a fine, brave Catalan, one of the best fishermen in Marseille, is in love with a beautiful girl called Mercédès; but it appears that, unfortunately, the girl herself is in love with the second mate of the
Pharaon
; and, as the
Pharaon
came into port this very day… You follow me?’
    ‘No, I don’t,’ said Danglars.
    ‘Poor Fernand has got his marching orders,’ Caderousse continued.
    ‘So, what then?’ said Fernand, lifting his head and looking at Caderousse, like a man anxious to find someone on whom to vent his wrath. ‘Mercédès is her own woman, isn’t she? She is free to love whomsoever she wants.’
    ‘Oh, if that’s how you take it,’ said Caderousse, ‘that’s another matter. I thought you were a Catalan, and I have been told that the Catalans are not men to let themselves be pushed aside by a rival. They even said that Fernand, in particular, was fearsome in his vengeance.’
    Fernand smiled pityingly. ‘A lover is never fearsome,’ he said.
    ‘Poor boy!’ Danglars continued, pretending to grieve for theyoung man from the bottom of his heart. ‘What do you expect? He didn’t imagine that Dantès would suddenly return like this; he may have thought him dead, or unfaithful. Who knows? Such things are all the more distressing when they happen to us suddenly.’
    ‘In any event,’ Caderousse said, drinking as he spoke and starting to show the effects of the heady wine of La Malgue, ‘in any event, Fernand is not the only person to have been put out by Dantès’ fortunate return, is he, Danglars?’
    ‘No, what you say is true – and I might even add that it will bring him misfortune.’
    ‘No matter,’ Caderousse went on, pouring out some wine for Fernand and replenishing his own glass for the eighth or tenth time (though Danglars had hardly touched the one in front of him). ‘No matter. In the meantime he will marry Mercédès, the lovely Mercédès. He has come back for that, at least.’
    While the other was speaking, Danglars directed a piercing look at the young man, on whose heart Caderousse’s words were falling like molten lead.
    ‘And when is the wedding?’ he asked.
    ‘Oh, it’s not settled yet,’ Fernand muttered.
    ‘No, but it will be,’ said Caderousse, ‘just as surely as Dantès will be captain of the
Pharaon
, don’t you think, Danglars?’
    Danglars shuddered at this unexpected stab and turned towards Caderousse,