The Count of Monte Cristo

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misfortune to change my love for you to admiration. I am not unhappy
while I possess my son!"

"Ah, just so," said Albert; "here begins the trial. Do you know the
decision we have come to, mother?"

"Have we come to any?"

"Yes; it is decided that you are to live at Marseilles, and that I am to
leave for Africa, where I will earn for myself the right to use the name
I now bear, instead of the one I have thrown aside." Mercedes sighed.
"Well, mother, I yesterday engaged myself as substitute in the Spahis,"
[*] added the young man, lowering his eyes with a certain feeling of
shame, for even he was unconscious of the sublimity of his self-
abasement. "I thought my body was my own, and that I might sell it. I
yesterday took the place of another. I sold myself for more than I
thought I was worth," he added, attempting to smile; "I fetched 2,000