The Count of Monte Cristo

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"Why, he was not altogether forsaken," continued Caderousse, "for
Mercedes the Catalan and Monsieur Morrel were very kind to him;
but somehow the poor old man had contracted a profound hatred for
Fernand--the very person," added Caderousse with a bitter smile,
"that you named just now as being one of Dantes' faithful and attached
friends."

"And was he not so?" asked the abbe.

"Gaspard, Gaspard!" murmured the woman, from her seat on the stairs,
"mind what you are saying!" Caderousse made no reply to these words,
though evidently irritated and annoyed by the interruption, but,
addressing the abbe, said, "Can a man be faithful to another whose wife
he covets and desires for himself? But Dantes was so honorable and
true in his own nature, that he believed everybody's professions of
friendship. Poor Edmond, he was cruelly deceived; but it was fortunate
that he never knew, or he might have found it more difficult, when on