0:00 CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
0:25 MONSIEUR NAUTIER DE VILLAPORT by Alexandra de Mars. Chapter 58. Monsieur Nautier de Villeport.
0:30 We will now relate what was passing in the house of the King's attorney after the departure of
0:38 Madame d'Anglars and her daughter, and during the time of the conversation between Maximilian and Valentin,
0:48 which we have just detailed,
0:50 Monsieur de Villefort entered his father's room,
0:54 followed by Madame de Villefort.
0:56 Both of the visitors, after saluting the old man and speaking to Barras,
1:02 a faithful servant who had been twenty-five years in his service,
1:07 took their places on either side of the paralytic. Monsieur Nortier was sitting in an armchair,
1:15 which moved upon Castor's, in which he was wheeled into the room in the morning,
1:21 and in the same way drawn out again at night. He was placed before a large glass,
1:28 which reflected the whole apartment, and so, without any attempt to move, which would have
1:34 been impossible. He could see all who entered the room, and everything which was going on around him.
1:42 Monsieur Nautier, although almost as immovable as a corpse, looked at the newcomers
1:49 with a quick and intelligent expression, perceiving at once by their ceremonious courtesy
1:56 that they were come on business of an unexpected and official character. Sight and hearing were the only senses remaining, and they, like two solitary
2:08 sparks, remained to animate the miserable body which seemed fit for nothing but the grave.
2:16 It was only, however, by means of one of these senses that he could reveal the thoughts and feelings that still occupied his mind, and the look by
2:28 which he gave expression to his inner life was like the distant gleam of a candle which a traveller
2:34 sees by night across some desert place, and knows that a living being dwells beyond the silence and obscurity. Nautia's hair was long and white, and flowed over his
2:49 shoulders, while in his eyes, shaded by thick black lashes, was concentrated, as it often happens
2:57 with an organ which is used to the exclusion of the others. All the activity, address, force, and intelligence which were
3:08 formerly diffused over his whole body, and so, although the movement of the arm, the sound of
3:16 his voice, and the agility of the body were wanting, the speaking eye sufficed for all. He commanded with it. It was the medium through which his
3:27 thanks were conveyed. In short, his whole appearance produced on the mind the impression
3:35 of a corpse with living eyes, and nothing could be more startling than to observe the expression
3:42 of anger or joy suddenly lighting up these organs,
3:47 while the rest of the rigid and marble-like features were utterly deprived of the power
3:53 of participation. Three persons only could understand this language of the poor paralytic.
4:01 These were Villafort, Valentin, and the old servant of whom we have already spoken.
4:09 But as Villafort saw his father but seldom, and then only when absolutely obliged, and as he never
4:16 took any pains to please or gratify him when he was there, all the old man's happiness was centred in his granddaughter val She answered by throwing her whole soul into the
4:48 expression of her countenance, and in this manner were the conversations sustained between the
4:56 blooming girl and the helpless invalid, whose body could scarcely be called a living one, but who, nevertheless, possessed a fund of knowledge
5:07 and penetration, united with a will as powerful as ever, although clogged by a body rendered
5:15 utterly incapable of obeying its impulses. Valentin had solved the problem, and was able easily to understand his thoughts, and to convey her own
5:28 in return, and, through her untiring and devoted assiduity, it was seldom that.
5:37 In the ordinary transactions of everyday life, she failed to anticipate the wishes of the living, thinking mind, or the wants of the almost
5:48 inanimate body. As to the servant, he had, as we have said, been with his master for five and twenty
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