The Count of Monte Cristo

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that he could not act otherwise."

In the court showing his merchandise, was a tradesman who had been
admitted with the same precautions. The baroness ascended the steps; she
felt herself strongly infected with the sadness which seemed to magnify
her own, and still guided by the valet de chambre, who never lost sight
of her for an instant, she was introduced to the magistrate's study.
Preoccupied as Madame Danglars had been with the object of her visit,
the treatment she had received from these underlings appeared to her so
insulting, that she began by complaining of it. But Villefort, raising
his head, bowed down by grief, looked up at her with so sad a smile that
her complaints died upon her lips. "Forgive my servants," he said, "for
a terror I cannot blame them for; from being suspected they have become
suspicious."

Madame Danglars had often heard of the terror to which the magistrate
alluded, but without the evidence of her own eyesight she could never