The Count of Monte Cristo

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.