The Count of Monte Cristo

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fire was lighted by the discreet servant, who had the superintendence of
the little apartment, and in the summer ices were placed on the table
at the same hour. At four o'clock, as we have already stated, the
mysterious personage arrived. Twenty minutes afterwards a carriage
stopped at the house, a lady alighted in a black or dark blue dress, and
always thickly veiled; she passed like a shadow through the lodge, and
ran up-stairs without a sound escaping under the touch of her light
foot. No one ever asked her where she was going. Her face, therefore,
like that of the gentleman, was perfectly unknown to the two concierges,
who were perhaps unequalled throughout the capital for discretion.
We need not say she stopped at the second floor. Then she tapped in a
peculiar manner at a door, which after being opened to admit her was
again fastened, and curiosity penetrated no farther. They used the same
precautions in leaving as in entering the house. The lady always left
first, and as soon as she had stepped into her carriage, it drove away,
sometimes towards the right hand, sometimes to the left; then about
twenty minutes afterwards the gentleman would also leave, buried in his