The Count of Monte Cristo

Back Forward Menu

"I only wish to be alone. You will excuse me, will you not? A priest
can understand a father's grief." And M. de Villefort, giving the key to
d'Avrigny, again bade farewell to the strange doctor, and retired to his
study, where he began to work. For some temperaments work is a remedy
for all afflictions. As the doctors entered the street, they saw a man
in a cassock standing on the threshold of the next door. "This is the
abbe of whom I spoke," said the doctor to d'Avrigny. D'Avrigny accosted
the priest. "Sir," he said, "are you disposed to confer a great
obligation on an unhappy father who has just lost his daughter? I mean
M. de Villefort, the king's attorney."

"Ah," said the priest, in a marked Italian accent; "yes, I have heard
that death is in that house."

"Then I need not tell you what kind of service he requires of you."

"I was about to offer myself, sir," said the priest; "it is our mission