Dantès (aside, touching forehead significantly). The reverend
gentleman has gone quite wrong.
Noirtier (clutching Dantès wildly). But, ah, they starve me!
Hence thy strange misgiving—
For what's a parson, boy, without his living?
Hast e'er a bone to give an old man squalid?
Dantès. Not me! They never give us nothing solid;
They seem to think an appetite's unlawful:
In fact, their bill of fare is fairly awful.
Noirtier. But now to business! You must know, fair youth,
Though I in prison lie, I love the truth.
Therefore—— But stay (glancing suspiciously around)—are we alone?
Dantès. Of course we are, old guy fox! (business).
Noirtier. Then now I will confess my little game.
(Removes wig, beard, rags, etc., and appears in convict dress, with [77] conspicuously marked on breast.)
And so, behold!
Dantès. What! Noirtier?
Noirtier.The same!