The Telegraph — The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo is waiting in the Villefort drawing-room when the procureur and his wife return. Villefort tries to hide his bad mood, but the Count sees it at once and learns what happened. Noirtier has disinherited Valentine because she is to marry Franz d'Épinay. Instead of leaving the money to his family, the old man has given about nine hundred thousand francs to charity.

Monte Cristo shows he knows the painful history between the two families. General d'Épinay, Franz's father, was murdered after a political meeting, and Noirtier hated him. The Count speaks as if he admires Villefort's plan to unite the children of old enemies. In truth he is steering the conversation. He urges Villefort to settle the marriage quickly before Franz returns, while Madame de Villefort quietly hopes the engagement may still fail.

Villefort refuses to change course. He says Valentine will marry Franz even without Noirtier's fortune. When the talk turns to the Count's dinner invitation for Saturday, Monte Cristo says the party will be at his country house in Auteuil, at number twenty-eight Rue de la Fontaine. Villefort turns pale. That house once belonged to the Saint-Méran family, and the address clearly frightens him.

Before leaving, the Count says he is going to visit a rural telegraph station because he wants to see how messages travel through the air. He jokes about the iron arms on the hill looking like a huge beetle. As he goes out, he passes the two notaries who have just finished Noirtier's will.