The Count of Monte Cristo

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inherited all the papers which proved that he had indeed the honor
of being the son of the Marquis Bartolomeo and the Marchioness Oliva
Corsinari. He was now fairly launched in that Parisian society which
gives such ready access to foreigners, and treats them, not as they
really are, but as they wish to be considered. Besides, what is required
of a young man in Paris? To speak its language tolerably, to make a
good appearance, to be a good gamester, and to pay in cash. They are
certainly less particular with a foreigner than with a Frenchman. Andrea
had, then, in a fortnight, attained a very fair position. He was called
count, he was said to possess 50,000 livres per annum; and his father's
immense riches, buried in the quarries of Saravezza, were a constant
theme. A learned man, before whom the last circumstance was mentioned as
a fact, declared he had seen the quarries in question, which gave great
weight to assertions hitherto somewhat doubtful, but which now assumed
the garb of reality.

Such was the state of society in Paris at the period we bring before our