M. Lamartine arose and took Espérance by the hand.
"I heartily congratulate you," said he.
"And Giovanni Massetti?" asked Zuleika, in a tremulous voice.
"Giovanni Massetti is unworthy of my daughter's hand!" replied M. Dantès.
"Let me see that letter," said Zuleika, her cheek growing paler and her heart beating tumultuously.
Her father gave it to her. She took it and read each line with an intensity of interest that was painful to behold. When she had reached the end, her eyes suddenly lighted up and the color came rushing back to her pallid cheeks.
"Espérance," she said, facing her brother with an air of resolution beneath which he quailed, "Luigi Vampa has not told all! Something he has kept back, and that something you know. What is it? Speak!"
"Luigi Vampa has told the truth!" replied the young man, doggedly.
"Yes, but not the whole truth. What has he kept back?"
Espérance shook his head.
"He has told the truth!" he repeated.
"Did the Viscount Massetti administer the oath of silence to you?"
"He did."
"Then who administered that oath to Giovanni?"
The young man did not answer.
"There is some mystery about this complicated affair yet unexplained, and until it is explained I cannot believe Giovanni Massetti guilty!"
"Come, come, my daughter," said M. Dantès, soothingly, "your heart speaks and not your mind."
"My heart and mind both speak, papa," replied Zuleika, "and both say that Giovanni Massetti is innocent."
"Let him prove it then."
"I feel certain that he can and will."
"Well, well, child, go to Madame Dantès and take counsel of her. Only a woman can heal a young girl's love wounds."
Zuleika quitted the salle-à-manger, her countenance yet bearing the stamp of an inflexible belief and a fixed determination.
"Espérance," said M. Dantès, "your honor is unstained and you are restored to my heart. I thank God for the blessings of this day!"
"You are a true father, Edmond, as well as a true patriot," said M. Lamartine, "and I feel assured that your son will be worthy of you and of our beloved France."
* * * * * That very day Giovanni Massetti received an unsigned little note, written in a tiny feminine hand. It was phrased thus: "I believe you innocent in spite of all! Prove to me and to the world that you are so."
Enclosed in this little note was Luigi Vampa's letter to M. Dantès.
The next morning it became known that the Viscount Massetti had disappeared from Paris. Gossip assigned a thousand scandalous motives for his sudden flight, but gossip could form no idea as to whither he had fled. Zuleika[2] however, knew that he had returned to Italy to clear his name and prove himself worthy of her love!