Thank you. Welcome back, everyone to 1001 Stories for the Road,

Chapter 36, Part 2 of the Count of Monte Cristo.

This is your host and storyteller, John Haggardorn.

Our two heroes are enjoying the carnival at Rome, thanks mostly to the great hospitality of their neighbor, the Count of Monte Cristo.

Albert is about to have especially good day.

The Count of Monte Cristo remained a quarter of an hour with them, conversing on all subjects with the greatest ease.

He was, as we have already said, perfectly well acquainted with the literature of all countries.

A glance at the walls of his salon proved to Franz and Albert that he was a connoisseur of pictures.

A few words he let fall showed them that he was no stranger to the sciences,

and he seemed much occupied with chemistry.

The two friends did not venture to return the count

the breakfast he had given them.

It would have been too absurd

to offer him in exchange for his excellent table,

the very inferior one of Signor Pastrini.

They told him so, frankly,

and he received their excuses with the air of a man who appreciated their delicacy.

Albert was charmed with the Count's manners, and he was only prevented from recognizing him for a perfect gentleman by reason of his varied knowledge. The permission to do what he liked with the carriage pleased him above all, for the fair

peasants had appeared in a most elegant carriage the preceding evening, and Albert was not

sorry to be upon an equal footing with them.

At half-past one they descended.

The coachman and footmen had put on their livery over their disguises,

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