The Count of Monte Cristo

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Danglars shrugged his shoulders. "Foolish creature," he exclaimed.
"Women fancy they have talent because they have managed two or three
intrigues without being the talk of Paris! But know that if you had
even hidden your irregularities from your husband, who has but the
commencement of the art--for generally husbands will not see--you would
then have been but a faint imitation of most of your friends among the
women of the world. But it has not been so with me,--I see, and always
have seen, during the last sixteen years. You may, perhaps, have hidden
a thought; but not a step, not an action, not a fault, has escaped me,
while you flattered yourself upon your address, and firmly believed you
had deceived me. What has been the result?--that, thanks to my pretended
ignorance, there is none of your friends, from M. de Villefort to M.
Debray, who has not trembled before me. There is not one who has not
treated me as the master of the house,--the only title I desire with
respect to you; there is not one, in fact, who would have dared to speak
of me as I have spoken of them this day. I will allow you to make me
hateful, but I will prevent your rendering me ridiculous, and, above