Your scruples come
too late. So long as you saw that your inheritance consisted of an
illustrious title and a dozen or so of millions, it pleased you. To-day
the name appears to you laden with a heavy fault, a crime, if you will;
and your conscience revolts. Renounce this folly. Children, sir, are
accountable to their fathers; and they should obey them. Willing or
unwilling, you must be my accomplice; willing or unwilling, you must
bear the burden, as I have borne it. And, however much you may suffer,
be assured your sufferings can never approach what I have endured for so
many years."
"Ah, sir!" cried Albert, "is it then I, the dispossessor, who has made
this trouble? is it not, on the contrary, the dispossessed! It is not I
who you have to convince, it is M. Noel Gerdy."
"Noel!" repeated the count.
"Your legitimate son, yes, sir. You act as if the issue of this unhappy
affair depended solely upon my will. Do you then, imagine that M. Gerdy
will be so easily disposed of, so easily silenced? And, if he should
raise his voice, do you hope to move him by the considerations you have
just mentioned?"
"I do not fear him."
"Then you are wrong, sir, permit me to tell you.
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