“Will not the Count of Monte Cristo be here tonight?”
“Seventeen!” replied Albert.
“What do you mean?”
“I only mean that the count seems the rage,” replied the viscount, smiling, “and that you are the seventeenth person that has asked me the same question. The count is in fashion; I congratulate him upon it.”
“And have you replied to everyone as you have to me?”
“Ah, to be sure, I have not answered you; be satisfied, we shall have this ‘lion’; we are among the privileged ones.”
“Were you at the Opera yesterday?”
“No.”
“He was there.”
“Ah, indeed? And did the eccentric person commit any new originality?”