The Count of Monte Cristo

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"Did I not tell you just now that I was rich, Maximilian--too rich? I
possess nearly 50,000 livres in right of my mother; my grandfather and
my grandmother, the Marquis and Marquise de Saint-Meran, will leave
me as much, and M. Noirtier evidently intends making me his heir. My
brother Edward, who inherits nothing from his mother, will, therefore,
be poor in comparison with me. Now, if I had taken the veil, all this
fortune would have descended to my father, and, in reversion, to his
son."

"Ah, how strange it seems that such a young and beautiful woman should
be so avaricious."

"It is not for herself that she is so, but for her son, and what you
regard as a vice becomes almost a virtue when looked at in the light of
maternal love."

"But could you not compromise matters, and give up a portion of your