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Haiti's Boudoir Visit

13:54 recording · EN · 1 speaker

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Brief overview

Monte Cristo tells Haiti she is free in France, and she refuses to leave him.

  1. Freedom offered, freedom refusedThe Count insists Haiti is free to leave; she answers that she cannot exist without him.
  2. One hour set apart at noonMonte Cristo schedules gentle emotions before the visit to Morel's family, as a gradual preparation for happiness.
  3. Her birth must stay secretThe single favour he asks is silence about her father and mother, and no allusion to the past.
Executive Summary AI
  • After Villefort's departure, Monte Cristo sets apart one hour at noon to spend in Haiti's apartments, his stern features lit with an unusual calm that astonishes his servant Ali.
  • Haiti occupies rooms wholly unconnected with the Count's, fitted up in strict Oriental style with the richest carpets Turkey could produce, luxurious divans, three French maids and one Greek attendant, and a circular boudoir lit through rose-colored glass.
  • She is described reclining on blue satin cushions with the coral tube of a nargile at her lips, dressed in the manner of the women of Epirus, her beauty purely Grecian, having numbered not more than twenty summers.
  • When the Count visits, he insists she is now in France and free, free even to leave him, and she answers that she has never loved anyone but him and her father.
  • He grants her absolute sway within the mansion but asks one favour, that she guard the secret of her birth and never name her illustrious father or ill-fated mother; she promises never to leave him, and he departs in his carriage murmuring lines of Pindar.
Key Quote
“Why demand permission ere you enter? Are you no longer my master? Or have I ceased to be your slave?”
— Haiti
Key Quote
“I have never seen any one I prefer to you, and I have never loved any one but you and my father.”
— Haiti
Key Quote
“You are everywhere!”
— Haiti

Transcript

0:00 XXXIX. 49. Haiti. It will be recollected that the new, or rather old, acquaintances of the Count of Monte Cristo,
0:31 residing in the room as lay, were no other than Maximilian, Julie, and Emmanuel.
0:37 The very anticipations of delight to be enjoyed in his forthcoming visits.
0:42 The bright, pure gleam of heavenly happiness it diffused
0:47 over the almost deadly warfare in which he had voluntarily engaged, illumined his whole
0:53 countenance with a look of ineffable joy and calmness. As immediately after Villefort's
1:00 departure, his thoughts flew back to the cheering prospect before him, of tasting, at least
1:07 a brief respite, from the fierce and stormy passions of his mind.
1:12 Even Ali, who had hastened to obey the Count's summons, went forth from his master's presence
1:19 in charmed amazement at the unusual animation and pleasure depicted on features ordinarily so stern and cold,
1:28 while, as though dreading to put to flight the agreeable ideas hovering over his patron's
1:34 meditations, whatever they were, the faithful Nubian walked on tiptoe toward the door,
1:41 holding his breath, lest its faintest sound should dissipate his master's happy revelry it was noon and monte-cristo had set apart one hour to be passed in the apartments of haiti feeling of pure and unmixed joy, but required a gradual succession of calm and gentle emotions
2:06 to prepare his mind to receive full and perfect happiness, in the same manner as ordinary natures
2:13 demand to be inured by degrees to the reception of strong or violent sensations. The young Greek,
2:22 as we have already said, occupied apartments wholly unconnected with those of the count the rooms had been fitted up in strict accordance with oriental ideas the floors were covered with the richest carpets turkey could produce most magnificent designs and texture, while around each chamber luxurious divans were placed,
2:47 with piles of soft and yielding cushions, that needed only to be arranged at the pleasure or
2:53 convenience of such as sought repose, Haiti, and three French maids, and one who was a Greek.
3:01 The first three remained constantly in a small waiting-room ready to obey the summons of a small golden Monte Cristo to treat Haiti with all the deference
3:26 they would observe to a queen. The young girl herself generally passed her time in the chamber
3:32 at the farther end of her apartments. This was a sort of boudoir, circular, and lighted only from
3:39 the roof, which consisted of rose-colored glass. Haiti was reclining upon soft downy cushions covered with blue satin,
3:48 spotted with silver. Her head, supported by one of her exquisitely molded arms,
3:54 rested on the divan immediately behind her, while the other was employed in adjusting to her lips
4:00 the coral tube of a rich nargile, through whose flexible pipe she drew the smoke,
4:07 fragrant by its passage through perfumed water. Her attitude, though perfectly natural for an
4:13 Eastern woman, would, in a European, have been deemed too full of coquettish straining after
4:19 effect. Her dress, which was that of the woman of Epirusirus consisted of a pair of little
4:46 slippers with upturned toes, beautifully ornamented with gold and pearls.
4:54 She wore a blue and white striped vest, with long open sleeves, trimmed with silver loops and
5:01 buttons of pearls, and a sort of bodice, which, closing only from the center to
5:07 the waist, exhibited the whole of the ivory throat and upper part of the bosom. It was fastened with
5:14 three magnificent diamond clasps. The junction of the bodice and drawers was entirely concealed by
5:21 one of the many-colored scarves, whose brilliant hues and rich silken
5:26 fringe have rendered them so precious in the eyes of the Parisian bells. Tilted on one side of her
5:34 head she had a small cap of gold-colored silk, embroidered with pearls, while on the other a
5:41 purple rose mingled its glowing colors with the luxuriant masses of her hair,
5:47 of which the blackness was so intense that it was tinged with blue.
5:52 The extreme beauty of the countenance, that shone forth in loveliness that mocked the vain attempts of dress to augment it,
6:01 was particularly and purely grecian there were the large dark melting eyes the finely formed nose the coral lips the pearly teeth that belonged to her race and country

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