The Count of Monte Cristo

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character as M. Villefort could lavish the tenderness some fathers do
on their daughters. What though she has lost her own mother at a tender
age, she has had the happiness to find a second mother in Madame de
Villefort.' The world, however, is mistaken; my father abandons me from
utter indifference, while my mother-in-law detests me with a hatred so
much the more terrible because it is veiled beneath a continual smile."

"Hate you, sweet Valentine," exclaimed the young man; "how is it
possible for any one to do that?"

"Alas," replied the weeping girl, "I am obliged to own that my
mother-in-law's aversion to me arises from a very natural source--her
overweening love for her own child, my brother Edward."

"But why should it?"

"I do not know; but, though unwilling to introduce money matters into