THE COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO.
121
Mercédès had never known want; she had often, in her youth, spoken of poverty, but between needs and necessity, those synonymous words, there is a wide difference.
At the Catalans, Mercédés wished for a thousand things, but still she never really wanted certain others. So long as the nets were good,
they caught fish; and so long as they sold their fish, they were able to buy thread for new nets. And then, shut out from friendship, having but one affection, which could not be mixed up with her ordinary pursuits, she thought of herself—of no one but herself. Upon the little she earned she lived as well as she could; now there were two to be supported, and nothing to live upon.
