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nydus/The Count of Monte CristoPublic
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Table of Contents

XLIV. The Vendetta

expression of cupidity as the flickering lamp revealed in those two countenances. The woman, especially, was hideous; her usual feverish tremulousness was intensified, her countenance had become livid, and her eyes resembled burning coals.

“ ‘Why,’ she inquired in a hoarse voice, ‘did you invite him to sleep here tonight?’

“ ‘Why?’ said Caderousse with a shudder; ‘why, that he might not have the trouble of returning to Beaucaire.’

“ ‘Ah,’ responded the woman, with an expression impossible to describe; ‘I thought it was for something else.’

“ ‘Woman, woman⁠—why do you have such ideas?’ cried Caderousse; ‘or, if you have them, why don’t you keep them to yourself?’

“ ‘Well,’ said La Carconte, after a moment’s pause, ‘you are not a man.’

“ ‘What do you mean?’ added Caderousse.

“ ‘If you had been a man, you would not have let him go from

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