The Count of Monte Cristo

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smile, Andrea seized the count's hand, pressed it, jumped into his
phaeton, and disappeared.

The four or five remaining hours before nine o'clock arrived, Andrea
employed in riding, paying visits,--designed to induce those of whom
he had spoken to appear at the banker's in their gayest
equipages,--dazzling them by promises of shares in schemes which have
since turned every brain, and in which Danglars was just taking the
initiative. In fact, at half-past eight in the evening the grand salon,
the gallery adjoining, and the three other drawing-rooms on the same
floor, were filled with a perfumed crowd, who sympathized but little
in the event, but who all participated in that love of being present
wherever there is anything fresh to be seen. An Academician would say
that the entertainments of the fashionable world are collections of
flowers which attract inconstant butterflies, famished bees, and buzzing
drones.