The Count of Monte Cristo

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"Why so?" inquired Dantes.

"Because it has instilled a new passion in your heart--that of
vengeance."

Dantes smiled. "Let us talk of something else," said he.

Again the abbe looked at him, then mournfully shook his head; but in
accordance with Dantes' request, he began to speak of other matters. The
elder prisoner was one of those persons whose conversation, like that
of all who have experienced many trials, contained many useful
and important hints as well as sound information; but it was never
egotistical, for the unfortunate man never alluded to his own sorrows.
Dantes listened with admiring attention to all he said; some of his
remarks corresponded with what he already knew, or applied to the sort
of knowledge his nautical life had enabled him to acquire. A part of the
good abbe's words, however, were wholly incomprehensible to him; but,