Bread and Salt — The Count of Monte Cristo

Mercédès leads Monte Cristo away from the crowded ballroom, through a tunnel of linden trees, and into her greenhouse. She picks Muscatel grapes and offers them to him. He bows but steps back and says he never eats that kind of grape. She sighs, then plucks a ripe peach from the wall and holds it out. He refuses again, and she says he is hurting her.

In the long silence that follows, Mercédès speaks of an Arabian custom. People who eat bread and salt under the same roof become eternal friends. Monte Cristo says that in France such friendships are rare. When she asks if they are friends, he answers yes, but his face turns pale, then red, as if the word costs him pain.

They walk on in silence. She asks whether he has suffered and whether he is happy now. He tells her about a girl he loved in Malta who married another man while he was away at war. Mercédès presses him gently. Did he forgive her? Does he still hate those who kept them apart? He says he hates no one. She offers the grapes once more. He refuses again, and she murmurs that he is an inflexible man.

Albert runs in with urgent news. M. de Saint-Méran is dead, and Villefort has come to fetch his wife and daughter from the ball. Valentine faints when she hears it. Mercédès takes Albert's hand and the Count's and asks one more time if they are friends. Monte Cristo answers that he is her respectful servant, not her friend. She leaves with her handkerchief to her eyes while Albert thinks everything went well.