The Count of Monte Cristo

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despatches. I returned home at daybreak, and strove to sleep; but my
head ached and I got up to have a ride for an hour. At the Bois de
Boulogne, ennui and hunger attacked me at once,--two enemies who rarely
accompany each other, and who are yet leagued against me, a sort of
Carlo-republican alliance. I then recollected you gave a breakfast this
morning, and here I am. I am hungry, feed me; I am bored, amuse me."

"It is my duty as your host," returned Albert, ringing the bell, while
Lucien turned over, with his gold-mounted cane, the papers that lay on
the table. "Germain, a glass of sherry and a biscuit. In the meantime,
my dear Lucien, here are cigars--contraband, of course--try them, and
persuade the minister to sell us such instead of poisoning us with
cabbage leaves."

"Peste, I will do nothing of the kind; the moment they come from
government you would find them execrable. Besides, that does not concern
the home but the financial department. Address yourself to M. Humann,