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The others, seeing that Mlle. d' Armilly was evidently about to have a hot dispute with her admirer and that she was sufficiently restored to need no further care, also quitted the apartment. When they were alone, the prima donna turned fiercely upon the Captain, exclaiming: "And you profess to love me, too! Was it love that induced you to bring my worst enemy here to-night? It was hatred rather!

When Captain Joliette entered the dressing-room of Mlle. d' Armilly, after quitting the Count of Monte-Cristo at the Apollo Theatre on the sudden termination of the performance of "Lucrezia Borgia," he found the prima donna lying upon a sofa and slowly recovering from the effects of her swoon.

The prima donna's brother Léon had turned out to be a woman masquerading in male attire, no other than Mlle. d' Armilly herself, Eugénie's former music-teacher, who had loaned her name to her friend when the latter started on her operatic career. These transformations had been immediately followed by another, Captain Joliette discarding his pseudonym and appearing as Albert de Morcerf.

He is utterly at a loss to realize why Mlle. d' Armilly should entertain so profound an aversion for him, and why the sight of him should so seriously affect her. If Mlle. d' Armilly would condescend to explain, he would regard it as a special favor.

The Count of Monte-Cristo had been unbound and ungagged by Ali when the robbers had left the study. Alarmed by the unwonted noise and commotion, Captain de Morcerf, Zuleika and Mlle. d' Armilly had appeared upon the scene, but too late to witness the conflict with the miscreants. In a few words the Count explained to them what had happened.

"Louise," he cried, "the Count of Monte-Cristo has written to exculpate me!" "Indeed!" replied the prima donna, contemptuously. "Yes; he also apologizes to you and asks you to explain why the sight of him so seriously affects you." "He asks an explanation, does he?" cried Mlle. d' Armilly, her anger resuming sway. "He shall never have one!"

Zuleika glanced at Mlle. d' Armilly as if she suspected that the strange beggar of that morning had something to do with this midnight invasion of their home; Louise looked uneasy and agitated, but preserved a stony silence. The white-robed woman still stood as if stupefied. Mlle. d' Armilly went to her and asked, solicitously: "Eugénie, what is the matter?"

Notwithstanding her willingness to believe that Mlle. d' Armilly had been deceived with regard to the identity of the beggar and, in her confusion, had confounded him with some one else, Zuleika could not altogether shake off a feeling of vague apprehension, of ill-defined terror when she thought over the singular conduct and wild agitation of the former music-teacher in the quiet and solitude of her own chamber.

He trusts that Captain Joliette will in nowise be blamed for what has occurred, as that gentleman, when he invited the Count to share his box, was as thoroughly convinced as the Count himself that Mlle. d' Armilly did not know and would not recognize him." As Joliette read the last lines that so completely cleared him, he could not suppress an exclamation of joy.

"Certainly you cannot allude to Mlle. d' Armilly or Ali, my father's devoted Nubian servant?" "No, I do not allude to them!" "Whom then do you mean?" "Cannot you guess, Zuleika?" A sudden thought came to Zuleika, filling her with intense amazement. "You cannot mean yourself and your husband, Mme. Morrel?" she gasped. "And why not, my child?" answered Valentine, sweetly.