The Count of Monte Cristo

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"And what have I to do with your ill-humor?" said the baroness,
irritated at the impassibility of her husband; "do these things concern
me? Keep your ill-humor at home in your money boxes, or, since you have
clerks whom you pay, vent it upon them."

"Not so," replied Danglars; "your advice is wrong, so I shall not follow
it. My money boxes are my Pactolus, as, I think, M. Demoustier says, and
I will not retard its course, or disturb its calm. My clerks are honest
men, who earn my fortune, whom I pay much below their deserts, if I may
value them according to what they bring in; therefore I shall not get
into a passion with them; those with whom I will be in a passion are
those who eat my dinners, mount my horses, and exhaust my fortune."

"And pray who are the persons who exhaust your fortune? Explain yourself
more clearly, I beg, sir."

"Oh, make yourself easy!--I am not speaking riddles, and you will soon