Father and Daughter — The Count of Monte Cristo

The story steps back to the morning of shared catastrophes. Eugénie summons Danglars to the gilded salon instead of his study, refuses Count Andrea Cavalcanti in two calm words, and explains that she wants art and liberty, not a perpetual companion encumbering her will. She lists beauty, wit, talent, and wealth as happiness enough, dismisses sorrow for Madame Danglars, and says she has loved no one since childhood taught her to expect nothing from anyone.

Danglars drops the indulgent mask he wears for servants and admits ruin with the smile of a clever heartless man. Credit sustains him like breath, he says, and Cavalcanti's three million livres must restore shaken confidence before a railway grant can multiply deposits into ten or twelve. Eugénie cross-examines the five-and-a-half-million charitable deposit he cannot touch without disgraceful bankruptcy, asks whether he will recover without spending the bridegroom's fortune, and demands freedom of person if she signs while refusing to be accomplice in ruining charitable depositors.

Neither thanks the other when the bargain closes. Eugénie sings Brabantio's malediction on Desdemona at the piano with Mademoiselle d'Armilly, then drives off with the baroness on the visit we saw at Villefort's, where betrothal news will meet Valentine's stair collapse.