Valentine Appears
Valentine Appears After being sent for, Valentine de Villefort enters the drawing-room in a dejected state, with traces of recent tears on her face. She is introduced as a tall, graceful nineteen-year-old with chestnut hair, blue eyes, and a quiet, swan-like distinction reminiscent of her late mother. She greets the count with poised elegance, drawing his close attention, but soon withdraws when the clock strikes six, for it is the hour of her grandfather Noirtier’s customary meal.
A Memory of Perugia
A Memory of Perugia The count claims to have met Madame de Villefort, Valentine, and Edward before, stirring a vague recollection of a beautiful sky, a religious fête, flowers, and a peacock in a garden. Valentine timidly suggests Italy, mentioning they had travelled two years earlier on doctors’ orders to Naples, passing through Bologna, Perugia, and Rome. This sparks the count’s memory: he places the encounter on Corpus Christi Day at Perugia, in the garden of the Hôtel des Postes.
The Stranger at the Hôtel des Postes
The Stranger at the Hôtel des Postes Memory returns in fragments: a hot day, delayed horses, a peacock being chased by Edward, and Madame de Villefort seated under an arbor speaking at length with a stranger wrapped in a long woollen mantle—the count himself. The count had acquired a local reputation as a healer at the inn, and Madame de Villefort had consulted him on Valentine’s health. Their earlier conversation had touched upon Perugino, Raphael, local customs, and the notorious acqua Tofana of Perugia.
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