of it alike bring care; but in the one case the
acquisition of a moderate quantity affords a remedy; the other case
grows worse by further acquisition. Carrizales contemplated his ingots
with anxiety, not as a miser, for, during the few years he had been a
soldier, he had learned to be liberal; but from not knowing what to do
with them; for to hoard them was unprofitable, and keeping them in his
house was offering a temptation to thieves. On the other hand, all
inclination for resuming the anxious life of traffic had died out in
him, and at his time of life his actual wealth was more than enough for
the rest of his days. He would fain have spent them in his native place,
put out his money there to interest, and passed his old age in peace and
quiet, giving what he could to God, since he had given more than he
ought to the world. He considered, however, that the penury of his
native place was great, the inhabitants very needy, and that to go and
live there would be to offer himself as a mark for all the importunities
with which the poor usually harass a rich neighbour, especially when
there is only one in the place to whom they can have recourse in their
distress.

He wanted some one to whom he might leave his property after his death,
and with that view, taking measure of the vigour of his constitution, he
concluded that he was not yet too old to bear the burthen of matrimony.
But immediately on conceiving this notion, he was seized with such a
terrible fear as scattered it like a mist before the wind. He was
naturally the most jealous man in the world, even without being married,
and the mere thought of taking a wife called up such horrible spectres
before his imagination that he resolved by all means to remain a
bachelor.

That point was settled; but it was not yet settled what he should do
with the rest of his life, when it chanced that, passing one day through
a street, he looked up and saw at a window a young girl apparently about
thirteen or fourteen, with a face so very handsome and so very pleasing
in its expression, that poor old Carrizales was vanquished at once, and
surrendered without an effort to the charms of the beautiful Leonora,
for that was the girl's name. Without more ado, he began to string
together a long train of arguments to the following effect:--"This girl
is very handsome, and to judge from the appearance of the house, her
parents cannot be rich. She is almost a child too; assuredly a wife o