said he, when Franz had concluded, "what do you find to object to in
all you have related? The count is fond of travelling, and, being rich,
possesses a vessel of his own. Go but to Portsmouth or Southampton, and
you will find the harbors crowded with the yachts belonging to such of
the English as can afford the expense, and have the same liking for this
amusement. Now, by way of having a resting-place during his excursions,
avoiding the wretched cookery--which has been trying its best to poison
me during the last four months, while you have manfully resisted its
effects for as many years,--and obtaining a bed on which it is possible
to slumber, Monte Cristo has furnished for himself a temporary abode
where you first found him; but, to prevent the possibility of the Tuscan
government taking a fancy to his enchanted palace, and thereby depriving
him of the advantages naturally expected from so large an outlay of
capital, he has wisely enough purchased the island, and taken its name.
Just ask yourself, my good fellow, whether there are not many persons of
our acquaintance who assume the names of lands and properties they never
in their lives were masters of?"
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