by Alexandre Dumas (Pere)
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"I do not know; I have only heard that an emperor of China had an oven built expressly, and that in this oven twelve jars like this were successively baked. Two broke, from the heat of the fire; the other ten were sunk three hundred fathoms deep into the sea. The sea, knowing what was required of her, threw over them her weeds, encircled them with coral, and encrusted them with shells; the whole was cemented by two hundred years beneath these almost impervious depths, for a revolution carried away the emperor who wished to make the trial, and only left the documents proving the manufacture of the jars and their descent into the sea. At the end of two hundred years the documents were found, and they thought of bringing up the jars. Divers descended in machines, made expressly on the discovery, into the bay where they were thrown; but of ten three only remained, the rest having been broken by the waves. I am fond of these jars, upon which, perhaps, misshapen, frightful monsters have fixed their cold, dull eyes, and in which myriads of small fish have slept, seeking a refuge from the pursuit of their enemies." Meanwhile, Danglars, who had cared little for curiosities, was mechanically tearing off the blossoms of a splendid orange–tree, one after another. When he had finished with the orange–tree, he began at the cactus; but this, not being so easily plucked as the orange–tree, pricked him dreadfully. He shuddered, and rubbed his eyes as though awaking from a dream.
"Sir," said Monte Cristo to him, "I do not recommend my pictures to you, who possess such splendid paintings; but, nevertheless, here are two by Hobbema, a Paul Potter, a Mieris, two by Gerard Douw, a Raphael, a Vandyke, a Zurbaran, and two or three by Murillo, worth looking at."
"Stay," said Debray; "I recognize this Hobbema."
"Ah, indeed!"
"Yes; it was proposed for the Museum."
"Which, I believe, does not contain one?" said Monte Cristo.
"No; and yet they refused to buy it."
"Why?" said Chateau–Renaud.
"You pretend not to know,—because government was not rich enough."
"Ah, pardon me," said Chateau–Renaud; "I have heard of these things every day during the last eight years, and I cannot understand them yet."
"You will, by and by," said Debray.
"I think not," replied Chateau–Renaud.
"Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti and Count Andrea Cavalcanti," announced Baptistin. A black satin stock, fresh from the maker's hands, gray moustaches, a bold eye, a major's uniform, ornamented with three medals and five crosses—in fact, the thorough bearing of an old soldier—such was the appearance of Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, that tender father with whom we are already acquainted. Close to him, dressed in entirely new clothes, advanced smilingly Count Andrea Cavalcanti, the dutiful son, whom we also know. The three young people were talking together. On the entrance of the new–comers, their eyes glanced from father to son, and then, naturally enough, rested on the latter, whom they began criticising. "Cavalcanti!" said Debray. "A fine name," said Morrel.
"Yes," said Chateau–Renaud, "these Italians are well named and badly dressed."
"You are fastidious, Chateau–Renaud," replied Debray; "those clothes are well cut and quite new."
"That is just what I find fault with. That gentleman appears to be well dressed for the first time in his life."
"Who are those gentlemen?" asked Danglars of Monte Cristo.
"You heard—Cavalcanti."
"That tells me their name, and nothing else."
"Ah, true. You do not know the Italian nobility; the Cavalcanti are all descended from princes."
"Have they any fortune?"
"An enormous one."
"What do they do?"
"Try to spend it all. They have some business with you, I think, from what they told me the day before yesterday. I, indeed, invited them here to–day on your account. I will introduce you to them."
"But they appear to speak French with a very pure accent," said Danglars.
"The son has been educated in a college in the south; I believe near Marseilles. You will find him quite enthusiastic."
"Upon what subject?" asked Madame Danglars.
"The French ladies, madame. He has made up his mind to take a wife from Paris."
