The Count of Monte Cristo

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Chapter 99. The Law.

We have seen how quietly Mademoiselle Danglars and Mademoiselle
d'Armilly accomplished their transformation and flight; the fact being
that every one was too much occupied in his or her own affairs to think
of theirs. We will leave the banker contemplating the enormous magnitude
of his debt before the phantom of bankruptcy, and follow the baroness,
who after being momentarily crushed under the weight of the blow which
had struck her, had gone to seek her usual adviser, Lucien Debray. The
baroness had looked forward to this marriage as a means of ridding her
of a guardianship which, over a girl of Eugenie's character, could not
fail to be rather a troublesome undertaking; for in the tacit relations
which maintain the bond of family union, the mother, to maintain her
ascendancy over her daughter, must never fail to be a model of wisdom
and a type of perfection.

Now, Madame Danglars feared Eugenie's sagacity and the influence of