from a great distance to
inherit my estate, and your creditors no doubt will be marching after
you in regiments, and now you find me alive. A little aggravating I take
it, eh?"

"Au contraire, as I find my dear uncle alive, it will be all the easier
for him to show himself amiable towards me."

"How? Explain yourself!"

"Well, I do not ask you for a yearly allowance, ce serait bien fatigant
for us both. My proposal is that you pay my debts in a lump sum, and
there shall be peace between us."

"Hum! Most magnanimous! And if I do _not_ pay them, I suppose war will
be declared?"

"Come, come, my dear uncle! You are pleased to be facetious! Not pay, do
you say! Why, 'tis only a matter of one or two hundred thousand livres
or so, a mere bagatelle to you."

"Well, my dear Mr. Nephew, I much regret that you think so lightly of
the estate which was won by the valour of your ancestors, but I am quite
unable to help you. I also am in want of cash. I also squander it on
follies, but on follies of purely home growth. I have a whole mob of
comrades, heydukes and ne'er-do-weels, at my heels, and anything over
and above what I spend on them, I scatter among the bumpkins who till my
fields, or, if a foolish whim seize me, I build me a bridge from one
hill to another. But I certainly do not waste my substance on
opera-dancers, nor am I given to abducting Moorish princesses, or
clambering up pyramids. If you like eating and drinking, you shall
always have as much as you like of both at my house, and you may also
choose you there pretty girls to your heart's content, who will look
every bit as picturesque as your Morocco princesses, if only you trick
them out finely enough. Moreover, if you have a mind to travel, this
kingdom is quite big enough. You can ride in your carriage for eight
days at a stretch without getting to the end of my property. But send
money abroad I will not; we don't carry water to the Danube."

The young gentleman began to lose patience during the course of this
lecture, turning incessantly in his chair and wriggling backwards and
forwards.

"I don't ask for a gift, you know," he exclaimed at last, "but only for
a payment in advance."

"What! a payment in advance! You want me to part with my very skin, I
suppose?"

"Eh!" cried Abellino, impatiently, and his face began to wear an
impertinent, contemptuous expression. "'Tis mine, you know, practically,
or at least will be one day. I suppose you don't wan