The Count of Monte Cristo

KAPITEL 96. The Contract

Chapter 96. The Contract covers the pre-signing meeting between Andrea Cavalcanti and the Count of Monte Cristo, Andrea’s afternoon preparations, the gathering of guests at the Danglars residence, the formal reading of the marriage contract, and the opening remarks just before the signing begins.

Andrea’s Pre-Contract Meeting with Monte Cristo

Three days after the events at Auteuil and on the afternoon of the contract signing, Andrea Cavalcanti arrives at Monte Cristo’s house in a fine phaeton, eager and self-satisfied. When the count, who is about to leave, declines to receive him in the carriage, the two retire to a small drawing-room. Over a lengthy conversation, Andrea fishes for confirmation of the Danglars fortune, the railway speculation, and the arrival of the three million livres from his father; Monte Cristo, watching every nuance, parries his flatteries with cold precision, reminding him that the acquaintance was arranged by Lord Wilmore and the Abbé Busoni and that personally he knows nothing of him. Andrea then makes his central request: that Monte Cristo act in place of his absent father and lead him to the altar. The count refuses outright, invoking his Eastern scruples about presiding over marriages, though he agrees to attend the ceremony and to sign the contract. He also gives Andrea a careful, technical piece of advice about how the bride’s dowry of five hundred thousand livres is normally handled between notaries, and gently warns him about Danglars’ plan to channel the capital into the railway venture. After pressing the count’s hand despite the latter’s pallor and reluctance, Andrea drives away in high spirits.

Andrea’s Pre-Signing Preparations

Over the four or five hours between the meeting with Monte Cristo and the nine o’clock signing, Andrea rides about Paris, pays calls on the influential acquaintances he has cultivated, and lures them toward the Danglars salon with promises of shares in the speculative ventures in which the banker is now taking the lead.

Guests Gather for the Contract Signing

By half past eight the grand salon, the adjoining gallery, and the three further drawing-rooms on the same floor at the Danglars house are filled with a glittering, perfumed crowd drawn more by curiosity than by sympathy. Mademoiselle Eugénie wears a figured white silk dress with a single white rose, her composure belying the modesty of her attire; Madame Danglars chats with Debray, Beauchamp, and Château-Renaud; Danglars mingles with deputies and revenue men, expounding a new theory of taxation; and Andrea, leaning on an Opera dandy, discourses cleverly on the luxuries his hundred and seventy-five thousand livres a year will allow him. A steady stream of famous names from finance, the army, and literature passes the door-keeper’s voice. At exactly nine, the striking of the massive time-piece, representing Endymion asleep, is followed by the announcement of the Count of Monte Cristo, who enters in black with his habitual simplicity, a slender gold chain his only ornament. The assembly parts before him; he moves from Madame Danglars to Eugénie to Mademoiselle d’Armilly, and finally joins Danglars, then pauses with the air of a man who has discharged the social obligations expected of him.

Reading of the Marriage Contract

The two notaries arrive and lay their scrawled documents on the gilt table, covered with gold-embroidered velvet and supported on lions’ claws, prepared for the signatures. As the reading begins, the crowd falls silent; once the long enumeration of settlements, dowries, wedding presents, and Eugénie’s diamonds is finished, an excited buzz spreads through the rooms, magnifying the brilliant figures and sharpening envy. Andrea, courted by his friends, almost begins to believe in his own dream, while the notary flourishes his pen and formally announces that the contract is about to be signed.

Pre-Signing Remarks

The baron is to sign first, then the representative of Cavalcanti senior, then the baroness, and finally the future couple. After Danglars and the representative have signed, Madame Danglars, leaning on Madame de Villefort’s arm, remarks on the vexatious absence of M. de Villefort, which she attributes to the murder and theft affair at the Count of Monte Cristo’s house. Monte Cristo steps forward and, with studied politeness, expresses his fear that he is the involuntary cause of the prosecutor’s absence.