World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 49 September 9th (5)
The representatives of Thomson & French agreed to postpone payment, so much to Morrel's surprise that the unfortunate owner felt as if his luck was about to turn again, as if fortune had declared to him, and fate had at last grown tired of Entangling and teasing him.On the same day, he told his daughter, his wife and Emmanuel about it again. Although the family could not say that they were at ease, they at least had some hope.Unfortunately, though Thomson & French was very lenient towards Morrel, it was not the same firm which had business dealings with Morrel.As he himself said, in business there are only customers, not friends.When he thought about it, he couldn't understand why Thomson & French could be so generous to him. He felt that the firm's behavior could only be justified by the kind of shrewd consideration of gain and loss. Someone owed us 30. Francs, instead of forcing him to go bankrupt and get at most six or eight percent of the principal, it is better to give him a hand now, and he can get back the full amount of 30 in three months.

Alas, whether out of hatred or confusion, not all of Morrel's clients thought so, and a few thought quite the opposite.The promissory notes signed by Mr. Morrel were sent to the company's cashier to be cashed without any ceremony. Thanks to the delay period given by the British, Cocles paid them in full.Cocles returned to his usual composure, and M. Morrel alone remained apprehensive, for he knew that if the 15 francs due on the 10th to M. Pouvier, the superintendent of prisons, and the due date on the 30th The 32500-franc promissory note was not extended, and he was bankrupt this month.

The business community in Marseille generally believes that Morrel, who has been troubled by many disasters, can no longer stand it, so everyone can't help being surprised to see that he can still pay various accounts on schedule at the end of the month, but they still have no confidence in him. At the end of next month, the unfortunate owner of the ship will have to submit a list of bankruptcy liabilities to the court.For a whole month Morrel tried to gather all sources of money with the greatest skill of his life.For the promissory notes he issued in the past, regardless of the date, the holders were very relieved, and they took the initiative to subscribe.Now Morrel only wanted to discount three-month promissory notes, but several banks were rejected.Happily, Morrel still had some income to look forward to, which was received, and he was able to meet all his debts by the end of July.

As for the representative of Thomson & French, he was no longer seen at Marseilles, and disappeared on the second or third day after seeing M. Morrel.In Marseilles he only found the mayor, the director of prisons and M. Morrel, so he left no trace in Marseilles except that these three people had different impressions of him.And the sailors of the 'King of Egypt' seem to have found new employers, since they too are gone.

Captain Gomar, who stayed on Palma Island due to illness, has also recovered and returned to Marseilles. He is embarrassed to come to see Mr. Morrel.But Morrel, hearing that he was back, went to see him himself.The honorable owner of the ship knew from Penelon the captain's heroic behavior in this maritime incident, so he took the initiative to say some words of comfort to him, and brought him wages, but the captain never dared to ask for the wages again. .M. Morrel, on his way down, met Penelon on the stairs going up.Penelon seemed to spend his money generously, for he was wearing a new suit that day.On seeing the owner, the venerable helmsman looked very ashamed, and shrank quickly to the corner of the landing just inside, with the chewing tobacco in his mouth pushing from left cheek to right cheek, and from right cheek to left cheek. , with big eyes flickering in panic, and a look of embarrassment when shaking hands with Mr. Morrel.M. Morrel, however, offered his hand, as usual, to shake it cordially, thinking that Penelon's embarrassment was due to his new and beautiful dress.The fine fellow has evidently never dressed himself so extravagantly before, and he must be employed on some other ship by now, so I'm ashamed, because, let's put it this way, the time he spent in mourning for the King of Egypt After all, it is not long.Perhaps he had come to announce his good fortune to Captain Gomar, and to tell him that his new employer had hired him too. "These are good people," said Morrel, going away; "may your new employer be as warm and friendly to you as I am, and may he be more fortunate than I am!"

As the days of August passed, Morrel was on the move, constantly trying to repay old debts and make new ones.On August 8th, there was a rumor in Marseilles that he had gone away by mail, so there was speculation that the company would declare bankruptcy by the end of the month. Newell and Cashier Cocles tackle the endgame.But unexpectedly, on August 8, the company's accounting room opened as usual, and Cocles sat calmly behind the fence of the accounting desk, still carefully checking the bills handed over, and all the promissory notes , from the first one to the last one, paid for every penny.Two bills were also sent, which M. Morrel had already instructed Cocles to pay in full, as bills issued by the owner himself.As a result, outsiders were all confused, but they were as self-righteous as those who predicted disasters, and they all concluded that it would close at the end of September.

On the 9st of September Morrel returned, and the whole family awaited his return with the utmost anxiety, for their last hope had rested on his visit to Paris.Morrel thought of Tangla, who was now a millionaire, and Tangla still owed him a favor, because it was because of his recommendation that Tangla entered a Spanish business firm and started to make a fortune from then on. .It is said that Tangla currently owns property worth 1-600 million and has excellent credit. He doesn’t need to pay a dime out of his own pocket to get Morrel a hand. As long as he is willing to be Morrel’s loan guarantor, Morrel Lyle was saved.Morrel had long thought of Tangra, but people had an instinctive and involuntary resentment, so Morrel kept procrastinating, and did not take this last path unless it was absolutely necessary.As Morrel had expected, he returned to Marseilles in frustration.But after entering the house, Morrel neither complained nor said a harsh word. He just hugged his wife and daughter in tears, shook hands with Emmanuel in a warm and friendly way, and then went up to the third floor by himself. office, and told Cocles to go up to him.

"This time we really can't save it." The mother and daughter said to Emmanuel.Then the mother and daughter had a hasty discussion and decided that Julie would write to her brother who was stationed in Nîmes, asking him to ask for leave and go home immediately.The unfortunate mother and daughter already instinctively felt that the disaster was becoming more and more urgent, and they must come out and do their best.Moreover, although Maximilian Morrel had just turned twenty-two, his father could listen to what he had to say.

This is a resolute and upright young man.When he chose a career, his father did not force him to consider a certain future, but only asked Maximilian what hobbies he had.The young man said that he liked the military career, and he studied hard for it. He was admitted to the Paris Ecole Polytechnique, and became a second lieutenant in the 53rd Regiment as soon as he graduated.He has been a second lieutenant for a year, and now he has a good chance of being promoted to lieutenant if there is a vacancy.Maximilian strictly observed discipline and was rewarded by the regiment. He not only fulfilled his duties as a soldier, but also fulfilled his obligations as a man. The regiment called him a Stoic (ancient Greek philosophy school, which advocated perseverance, indifference, Later became a synonym for asceticism.).Of course, many people have only heard of this title, so they gave him such a nickname and always called him that, but they didn't know what it meant at all.

The mother and sister felt that the situation would soon become serious, so they called the young man back to help them tide over the difficulties together.The mother and daughter did not miscalculate the seriousness of the situation, because soon after Mr. Morrel and Cocles went to the office, Julie saw Cocles come out. He was pale, trembling, and looked sad. look.The girl wanted to ask Cocles as he passed her, but the good man, uncharacteristically, hurried downstairs, calling out to heaven with his hands up: "Oh, madam, madam, what a terrible disaster!" Who would have expected that!" After a while, Julie saw him go upstairs again holding two or three thick ledgers, a briefcase and a money bag.

Morrel consulted the ledger, opened the briefcase, and counted the money.All his cash is about 6000-8000 francs, and he can receive four or five thousand francs by the 5th. The sum of the two items is only 1.4 francs at most, but the promissory note to be paid is 287500 francs. Also not enough money.Morrel, however, came down to dine, with an outwardly unperturbed appearance, which, if he had been in the state of extreme despondency, would not have disturbed the mother and daughter as much as it did.Usually, after lunch, Morrel would go out for a walk to Phocaia, the ancient place in Asia Minor, and Marseille, also known as the ancient city of the Phocaeans.The club had a cup of coffee and read The Signal, but instead of going out that day he went upstairs to his office.As for Cocles, he seemed completely confused. He sat on a stone in the yard all afternoon with his bare head under the 30°C sun.Emmanuel wanted to say a few words of relief to the mother and daughter, but he didn't say enough. He knew the business of the firm too well. It was impossible for the young man not to feel that the Morrel family was in danger. .

At night and day, the mother and daughter kept watch in the room, hoping that Morrel would come to them when he came down from his office, but they heard him pass the door, and with a deliberately soft step, which must have been Afraid they would call him.The mother and daughter listened attentively, and Morrel went into her bedroom and locked the door behind her.Madame Morrel told her daughter to go to bed first, and after Julie's departure she waited another half an hour, then got up, took off her shoes, and crept along the corridor, trying to see through the keyhole what her husband was doing.She found a dark figure shrinking back in the corridor. It turned out to be Julie. She was also worried and came a step ahead of her mother.The girl came up to Madame Morrel. "He's writing," she said.The mother and daughter didn't need to say anything to guess what was in each other's mind.Mrs. Morrel bent over the keyhole and looked into the room. Sure enough, Morrel was writing something, but Mrs. Morrel saw what her daughter did not see, that is, the paper her husband wrote was a piece of paper. printed paper.A horrifying thought flashed through her mind that he was writing a will, and Madame Morrel trembled in her limbs, but she managed to suppress it, and said nothing.

The next day Morrel seemed very calm, went into the office as usual, and went downstairs to have lunch as usual, but after lunch he asked his daughter to sit down beside him and put his hands on her head against his chest. Time to let go.In the evening, Julie told her mother that although her father looked calm on the outside, she could already hear his heart beating.This was generally the case for the next two days. On the evening of September 9, Mr. Morrell asked his daughter to give him back the key to the office.As soon as her father said this, Julie shuddered, thinking it was an ominous omen.She has always held this key, and when she was a child, she sometimes punished her for taking it back, but why does her father ask her to hand it over now?The girl looked at M. Morrel, and said, "Papa, what have I done wrong to take this key back?"

"Nothing, my child," answered the unfortunate Morrel, weeping at his daughter's casual question, "nothing, except that I will use it."

Julie pretended to be looking for the key. "I probably forgot the key in my room," she said.Then she went out, but instead of going to her room, she hurried downstairs to talk to Emmanuel about what to do. "The key cannot be returned to your father," Emmanuel said, "and tomorrow morning, as far as possible, he will not leave his old man's house for a moment." The girl asked Emmanuel why, but he didn't know, maybe it was He refused to say more.

During the night of the 9th of September, Mrs. Morrel put her ear to the wainscoting, and until three o'clock in the morning she could hear her husband restlessly pacing in his bedroom, who was only in the middle of the night. Went to bed around 4:3.The mother and daughter stayed together that night, and they had been looking forward to Maximilian since the evening before yesterday.

At eight o'clock in the morning on September 9, Mr. Morrel came to the mother and daughter's room.He was very calm, but one could tell from his pale and haggard face that he spent the night in extreme anxiety, and neither mother nor daughter dared to ask him if he slept well.On that day Morrel was more tender to his wife, and more kind to his daughter than he had ever been in his life.He stared at the poor daughter for a long time and hugged her tightly, but he always felt that he hadn't seen enough or made enough love.Julie remembered Emmanuel's advice, and when her father walked out of the room, she followed her out, but the father pushed her daughter back into the room with a pleasant face, saying, "Stay with your mother well." Julie insisted Followed him, and Morrel said, "That's what I want you to be!" For the first time in his life, Morrel said to his daughter, "That's what I want you to be."But the voice was still full of kindness, and Zhu Li didn't dare to take a step forward after hearing this.She stood there in a daze, silent and motionless.After a while, the door was pushed open again, and she felt two arms embrace her, two lips kissed her forehead, she looked up, and couldn't help shouting in surprise: "Maximilian, brother!" Mrs. Lyle rushed over upon hearing the sound and threw herself into her son's arms.

"Mother," said the young man, looking from Madame Morrel to Julie, "what's the matter? What's the matter? Your letter has startled me, and I've come as soon as I got it."

"Julie," said Madame Morrel, gesturing to her son, "go and tell your father that Maximilian is home."

The girl rushed out of the apartment immediately, but just as she reached the stairs, she saw someone holding a letter in her hand.

"Excuse me, are you Miss Julie Morrel?" asked the man with a heavy Italian accent.

"Yes, sir," replied Julie stammeringly, "what can I do for you? I don't know you."

"There is a letter for you to read." The man said as he handed the letter to her.Julie hesitated. "This is related to the safety of your father."

The girl took the letter with her hand, opened it hastily, and read:
When you see the letter, go to Maihang Lane, enter the small building at No. 15, first ask the concierge for the key to the room on the sixth floor, then go upstairs to the room, take off the red silk purse on the corner of the fireplace, and give it to your lord.Be sure to deliver the purse to your father before 6 o'clock.Please note that you have promised me to do everything.

sailor samba
The girl yelled happily, and raised her eyes to look for the messenger to ask again, but the man had disappeared without a trace.The girl's eyes fell on the letter, she read it again, and seeing that there was a postscript on the letter, she read:

This matter must be handled by you personally and alone. If someone is accompanied or appointed as an agent, the concierge will reply incomprehensibly.

This postscript poured a basin of cold water on the girl's joy.Doesn't she have nothing to worry about?Could this be a scam set on her?She was naive and didn't understand the dangers that a girl of her age could encounter.However, people don't feel intimidated when they know the danger. One point is to explain that it is the unpredictable danger that makes people feel great fear.Julie hesitated, and finally decided to consult someone first.However, out of an unaccountable emotion, she consulted neither her mother nor her brother, but Emmanuel.She went downstairs and told Emmanuel what had happened on the day the representative of Thomson & French met her father, what had just happened on the stairs. , recounted her promise in detail, and finally handed him the letter.

"You must go, madam," said Emmanuel.

(End of this chapter)