Madame de Villefort, who had not yet sufficiently recovered from her late emotion to allow of her entertaining visitors so immediately, retired to her bedroom, while the procureur, who could better depend upon himself, proceeded at once to the salon. Although M. Have I arrived at the moment when you were drawing up an indictment for a capital crime? It is I who lose my cause, and it is ill-luck, obstinacy, and folly which have caused it to be decided against me.
It is indeed a sum which might be regretted even by a philosopher. And who is the cause of all this annoyance? But I thought you told me he had become entirely paralyzed, and that all his faculties were completely destroyed?
I left him about five minutes ago, and he is now occupied in dictating his will to two notaries. Madame de Villefort acknowledged the salutation with one of her most gracious smiles. Nevertheless, it is necessary that my will should be respected in my family, and that the folly of an old man and the caprice of a child should not be allowed to overturn a project which I have entertained for so many years.
The Baron d'Epinay was my friend, as you know, and an alliance with his son is the most suitable thing that could possibly be arranged.
She has always been opposed to this marriage, and I should not be at all surprised if what we have just seen and heard is nothing but the execution of a plan concerted between them. The name of father is sacred in two senses; he should be reverenced as the author of our being and as a master whom we ought to obey.
