The Count of Monte Cristo

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readers, when Monte Cristo went one evening to pay M. Danglars a visit.
M. Danglars was out, but the count was asked to go and see the baroness,
and he accepted the invitation. It was never without a nervous shudder,
since the dinner at Auteuil, and the events which followed it, that
Madame Danglars heard Monte Cristo's name announced. If he did not
come, the painful sensation became most intense; if, on the contrary, he
appeared, his noble countenance, his brilliant eyes, his amiability,
his polite attention even towards Madame Danglars, soon dispelled every
impression of fear. It appeared impossible to the baroness that a man of
such delightfully pleasing manners should entertain evil designs against
her; besides, the most corrupt minds only suspect evil when it would
answer some interested end--useless injury is repugnant to every mind.
When Monte Cristo entered the boudoir,--to which we have already once
introduced our readers, and where the baroness was examining some
drawings, which her daughter passed to her after having looked at them
with M. Cavalcanti,--his presence soon produced its usual effect, and it
was with smiles that the baroness received the count, although she had