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Conjugal Tension at Danglars

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Brief overview

Danglars, having lost 700,000 francs, confronts his wife over Debray's advice and demands a quarter back.

  1. The tips ran both ways for yearsHaitian funds, the Southern railway and Spanish shares each came from her drawing-room talk, and each paid her a share.
  2. A false dispatch cost seven hundred thousand francsWrong signals in the last two telegrams reported Don Carlos returned to Spain; Danglars sold, and the news was false the next day.
  3. Danglars traded silence for controlFour years of pretended ignorance left every one of her friends, from Villefort to Debray, trembling before him as master of the house.
Executive Summary AI
  • After the count's dinner party the company separates and Debray rides to the Danglars house, escorting the Baroness in and pressing her to explain why the count's story left her so affected.
  • Monsieur Danglars walks in unexpectedly and, with a cold politeness that petrifies Debray, sends him home so he can speak with his wife about serious matters.
  • Alone with Hermine, Danglars tells her he has just lost seven hundred thousand francs on the Spanish loan, after a false telegraphic dispatch reported Don Carlos's return to Spain.
  • He itemises the tips she passed him: the Haitian funds last February gained four hundred thousand francs with one hundred thousand paid to her, the Southern railway grant in March a million with two hundred and fifty thousand francs for pin-money, and the Spanish shares in April six hundred thousand francs with fifty thousand crowns to her — five hundred thousand livres in one year.
  • Because he gave her a fourth of the gains he claims a fourth of the loss, 175,000 francs, threatens to bar Debray from the house unless he bears his share, and leaves her collapsed in a chair thinking of Villefort.
Key Quote
“What was the matter with you, Hermine, and why were you so affected at that story, or rather fable, which the count related?”
— Lucien Debray
Key Quote
“Keep your ill-humour at home in your money-boxes, or, since you have clerks whom you pay, vent it upon them.”
— Madame Danglars
Key Quote
“My money-boxes are my pactolus, as, I think, M. de Mustier says, and I will not retard its course, or disturb its calm.”
— Monsieur Danglars

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER 65. A Conjugal Scene.
0:28 At the Place Louis XV the three young people separated.
0:32 That is to say, Morel went to the boulevards, Chateau-Renaud to the Pont de la Révelution, and Dibray to the quay.
0:40 Most probably Morel and Chateau-Renaud returned to their domestic horrors,
0:53 as they say in the gallery of the chamber in well-turned speeches and in the theatre of the rue richelieu in well-written pieces but it was not the case with debray when he reached the wicket of the louvre he turned to the left galloped across the carrousel passed through the rue saint-roRoch, and, issuing from the Rue de la Michaudière,
1:06 he arrived at M. Danglars' door just at the same time that Villefort's Lando, after having
1:12 deposited him and his wife at the Frauburg Saint-Honor, stopped to leave the Baroness
1:17 at her own house.
1:19 Dibret, with the air of a man familiar with the house, entered first into the court, threw
1:24 his bridle into the hands of a footman, and returned to the door to entered first into the court, threw his bridle into the hands
1:25 of a footman, and returned to the door to receive Madame Danglars, to whom he offered
1:30 his arm to conduct her to her apartments.
1:33 The gate once closed, and Dupre and the Baroness alone in the court, he asked, What was the
1:39 matter with you, Hermine, and why were you so affected at that story, or rather fable,
1:44 which the count related?
1:47 Because I have been in such shocking spirits all the evening, my friend, said the Baroness.
1:53 No, Hermine, replied Dupre, you cannot make me believe that. On the contrary,
1:58 you were in excellent spirits when you arrived at the count's. Monsieur Danglars was disagreeable,
2:03 certainly, but I know how much you care for his
2:06 ill-humour. Someone has vexed you. I will allow no one to annoy you.
2:11 You are deceived, Lucian, I assure you, replied Madame Danglars, and what I have told you is
2:16 really the case, added to the ill-humour you remarked, but which I did not think it worthwhile
2:20 to allude to. It was evident that Madame Danglars was suffering from that nervous
2:25 irritability which women frequently cannot account for even to themselves, or that,
2:31 as Debray had guessed, she had experienced some secret agitation that she would not acknowledge
2:35 to any one. Being a man who knew that the former of these symptoms was one of the inherent penalties
2:40 of womanhood, he did not then press his inquiries, but waited for a more appropriate
2:45 opportunity when he should again interrogate her, or receive an avowal proprio motu.
2:51 At the door of her apartment the Baroness met Mademoiselle Cornélie, her confidential maid.
2:57 What is my daughter doing? asked Madame Danglars.
3:00 She practised all the evening, and then went to bed, replied Mademoiselle Cornélie.
3:05 Yet I think I hear her piano.
3:07 It is Mademoiselle Louise d'Armilly who is playing while Mademoiselle Danglars is in bed.
3:13 Well, said Madame Danglars, come and undress me.
3:17 They entered the bedroom.
3:19 Debray stretched himself upon a large couch,
3:21 and Madame Danglars passed into her dressing-room with Mademoiselle Cornélie.
3:26 My dear Monsieur Lucien, said Madame Danglars passed into her dressing-room with Mademoiselle Cornélie. "'My dear Monsieur Lucien,' said Madame Danglars through the door,
3:29 "'you are always complaining that Eugenie will not address a word to you.'
3:33 "'Madame,' said Lucien, playing with the little dog, who, recognizing him as a friend of the house,

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