The Count of Monte Cristo

Back Forward Menu

and was able easily to understand his thoughts, and to convey her own in
return, and, through her untiring and devoted assiduity, it was seldom
that, in the ordinary transactions of every-day life, she failed to
anticipate the wishes of the living, thinking mind, or the wants of the
almost inanimate body. As to the servant, he had, as we have said, been
with his master for five and twenty years, therefore he knew all his
habits, and it was seldom that Noirtier found it necessary to ask for
anything, so prompt was he in administering to all the necessities of
the invalid. Villefort did not need the help of either Valentine or the
domestic in order to carry on with his father the strange conversation
which he was about to begin. As we have said, he perfectly understood
the old man's vocabulary, and if he did not use it more often, it
was only indifference and ennui which prevented him from so doing. He
therefore allowed Valentine to go into the garden, sent away Barrois,
and after having seated himself at his father's right hand, while Madame
de Villefort placed herself on the left, he addressed him thus:--