Since spoiler markings aren't shown on mobile, please use the Spoilers Topic to discuss events from later in the book.

Sorry if this is an hour or two late. I didn't think about Daylight Saving Time and need to figure out the correct time in my time zone again.

Discussion starters:

1.) This chapter got really foreboding when the Count told Valentine not to worry if she wakes up in a tomb. Hasn't he read Romeo and Juliet? Has he talked to Maximilien about this, or is he really just saying "job done" and going to sleep? Surely(?) Dumas can't just redo Shakespeare's plot here, so what kind of twist do you expect?

2.) We discussed a bit last week why Valentine wasn't connecting the dots. Well, now the Count explained it to her. Do you think this scene with Valentine reminded him of when he was too innocent to understand the fact of others having it out for him and why, and needing Faria to explain it to him?

3.) Practically hiding in a girl's closet, the Count isn't being very discrete. He even seems to have mixed up his disguises, because last chapter he told Valentine he rented the house next door, yet he got the house as Busoni, not the Count. And now he's messing around with an overwrought plan in a life-and-death situation. What are your thoughts? Is the Count off the rails?

4). Other points of discussion?

Final Line:

Then he took the glass, emptied three parts of the contents in the fireplace, that it might be supposed Valentine had taken it, and replaced it on the table; then he disappeared, after throwing a farewell glance on Valentine, who slept with the confidence and innocence of an angel at the feet of the Lord.

Previous Discussion

The next discussion will be up this Saturday.