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"Listen," said the baroness, s to you as a friend I can say that the prince does not yet appear all he will be He has about hin ht, the Italian or Gerreat kindness of disposition, lars assures me that his fortune is enie, while turning over the leaves of Madareat fancy to the young man"

"And," said Madame de Villefort, "I need not ask you if you share that fancy"

"I?" replied Eugenie with her usual candor "Oh, not the least in the world, madame! My as not to confine myself to domestic cares, or the caprices of any man, but to be an artist, and consequently free in heart, in person, and in thought" Eugenie pronounced these words with so firm a tone that the color irl could not understand that vigorous nature which appeared to have none of the timidities of woman

"At any rate," said she, "since I aht to be thankful to providence for having released ement with M Albert de Morcerf, or I should this day have been the wife of a dishonored e si fashionable ladies, and of which plebeian intercourse can never entirely deprive them,--"it is very true that had not the Morcerfs hesitated, eneral depended lars We have had a narrow escape"

"But," said Valentine, timidly, "does all the father's shame revert upon the son? Monsieur Albert appears to eneral"

"Excuse irl, "Monsieur Albert clai challenged M de Monte Cristo at the Opera yesterday, he apologized on the ground to-day"

"Impossible," said Madalars, with the same simplicity we before noticed, "it is a fact I heard it from M Debray, as present at the explanation" Valentine also knew the truth, but she did not answer A single word had re her in M Noirtier's rooed with a sort of inward contemplation, Valentine had ceased for a moment to join in the conversation She would, indeed, have found it impossible to repeat what had been said the last few lars' hand, pressed on her ary