A Conjugal Scene — The Count of Monte Cristo

At the Place Louis XV, Morrel, Château-Renaud, and Debray ride off in different directions. Debray does not go home. He turns toward the Danglars house and meets Madame Danglars just as she arrives from Auteuil. He walks her inside and asks why Monte Cristo's dinner story upset her so much. She says she was simply in low spirits, but Lucien Debray does not believe her.

While Hermine undresses, Debray waits in the sitting room and teases her about their silent daughter Eugénie. Then Baron Danglars walks in unexpectedly. He is polite on the surface, but his real goal is clear. He sends Debray away and takes the sofa himself. When the little dog tries to bite him, he throws the animal across the room.

Now husband and wife are alone, and Danglars opens his books. He says he lost seven hundred thousand francs on Spanish bonds because Hermine acted on Debray's bad telegraph news. He lists every earlier tip that made him rich and demands she pay a fourth of this loss, one hundred seventy-five thousand francs. He accuses Debray of living off her money while smiling like a man who wins at roulette without playing.

The fight turns cruel. Danglars says he has watched her affairs for sixteen years, from Villefort to Debray. He brings up her first husband Nargonne and says she was six months pregnant when he died nine months after leaving. Hermine turns pale at Villefort's name and nearly faints. Danglars calls the false telegram a political attack, shuts the bedroom door, and leaves her alone as if the night were only a bad dream.