The Count of Monte Cristo

第四十六章 Unlimited Credit

Baron Danglars visits Monte Cristo’s mansion and is refused entry. The count then acquires Danglars’s horses, instructs his steward to secure a seaside estate, and departs for the banker’s home on the Rue de la Chaussée d’Antin. There the two men meet, and an exchange of titles and barbs commences over the matter of Monte Cristo’s unlimited credit.

Baron Danglars Calls at Monte Cristo

At about two o’clock, a calash drawn by a pair of magnificent English horses stops at Monte Cristo’s door. Its occupant, dressed in a blue coat with matching buttons, a white waistcoat bearing a massive gold chain, brown trousers, and a profusion of black hair, presents himself as a man past fifty who desires to be taken for not more than forty. The baronial arms on the carriage panels identify him as a baron. He directs his groom to inquire whether the Count of Monte Cristo resides there and is within. While waiting, the man surveys the house, garden, and servants’ livery with an attention so close as to border on impertinence. His keen but cunning gaze, thin lips drawn tightly over his teeth, broad projecting cheekbones, flat forehead, and the enlargement at the back of his skull mark a physiognomy that is anything but prepossessing—save to those who, dazzled by his splendid equipage, the enormous diamond in his shirt, and the red ribbon at his buttonhole, consider him all that is admirable and enviable.

Refused at the Gate

The groom taps at the porter’s lodge and asks if the Count of Monte Cristo lives there. The concierge confirms that his excellency resides at the house, but, glancing inquiringly at Ali, receives a sign in the negative and adds that the count does not receive visitors that day. When the groom presses, the concierge replies that he never speaks to his excellency, and that the valet de chambre must carry any message. The groom returns crestfallen to the carriage and reports what has passed. Danglars, somewhat taken aback, murmurs that the man must be a prince rather than a count to be styled “excellency” and to be approached only through a valet, but he reflects that it does not signify since the count holds a letter of credit on him, and he will have to see the count when his money is required. Throwing himself back in his carriage, Danglars calls out in a voice that rings across the road, “To the Chamber of Deputies.”