"Surely, I see him before me, do I not?" said Zuleika, gazing tenderly at her father.
"Not as he was, my child, not as he was. Wait here a few moments, with my faithful Ali as your guard and protector, and I will invoke the fantastic apparition!"
As he spoke he raised the faded tapestry, revealing the door leading to the inner apartment; opening this door and closing it behind him he was lost to sight; the tapestry fell back to its place, masking the point of entrance.
After a brief absence he reappeared dressed in his famous Tunisian costume, but that, alas! had also lost its pristine glory like everything else in this abandoned subterranean abode. Still the wrecks were there--the red cap with the long blue silk tassel; the vest of black cloth embroidered with gold; the pantaloons of deep red; the large, full gaiters of the same color, embroidered with gold like the vest; the yellow slippers; the cachemire around his waist, and the small, crooked cangiar passed through his girdle.
Zuleika gazed at him in amazement. In his faded, tarnished, moth-eaten finery he, indeed, looked like a fantastic apparition, a picturesque ghost of the past.
"Come, Zuleika," said he, "as I am in my festal attire let us visit the salle-à-manger!"
He moved aside the tapestry once more and again opened the door leading to the other apartment. Zuleika entered and the Count followed her, Ali remaining in the outer chamber to guard against surprise or intrusion. The marvellous salle-à-manger was precisely the same as the Baron d' Epinay had seen it. Here time seemed to have been defied. The marble of which the magnificent apartment was built was as bright and beautiful as ever, the antique bas-reliefs of priceless value were well preserved, and the four superb statues with baskets on their heads were yet in their places in the corners of the oblong room and yet perfect, though no pyramids of splendid fruit now filled the baskets. In the centre of the salle-à-manger the dining-table still stood with its dishes of silver and plates of Japanese china. It was at this table that both the Baron d' Epinay and Maximilian Morrel had taken that wonderful green preparation, that key to the gate of divine dreams, the hatchis of Alexandria, the hatchis of Abou-Gor. It was at this table that Maximilian, when falling under the influence of the potent drug, had caught his first glimpse of his beloved Valentine after her supposed death; it was at this table that he had been reunited to her on awaking from his hatchis dream. It was in this room that Haydée had confessed her love for Monte-Cristo and had been taken to his heart.