e-dealers because you
can't pay them, I suppose? Would it not be juster to pay them up in
full?"

"How can I?" cried Abellino, furiously. "If only, like Don Juan de
Castro, I could raise money on half of my moustache by sending it to
Toledo! But I can't even do that, for I have cut it off."

"And what will you do if they keep on dunning you?"

"Blow my brains out; that's soon done."

"Ah! don't do that. What would the world say if an eminent Hungarian
nobleman were to blow his brains out for a matter of a paltry hundred
thousand francs or two?"

"And what would it say if they clapped him in gaol for these same paltry
francs?"

The banker smiled, and laid his hand on the young dandy's shoulder;
then, in a confidential tone, he added--

"Now we will try what we can do to save you."

This smile, this condescending tap on the shoulder, revealed the
_parvenu_ most completely.

The banker now took a seat beside him on the ample sofa, and thus
obliged him to sit straight.

"You require three hundred thousand francs," continued Monsieur
Griffard, in a gentle, soothing voice, "and I suppose you will not be
alarmed at the idea of paying me back six hundred thousand instead of
that amount when you come into your property?"

"Fi donc!" said Karpathy, contemptuously. A feeling of noble pride awoke
within him for an instant, and he coldly withdrew his arm from the
banker's hand. "You are only a usurer, after all," he added.

The banker pocketed the affront with a smile, and tried to smooth the
matter over with a jest.

"The Latin proverb says, '_Bis dat qui cito dat_--'He gives twice who
gives quickly.' Why should I not wish to double my money? Besides, money
is a sort of ware, and if you are at liberty to expect a tenfold return
from grain that you have cast forth, why may you not expect as much from
money that you have cast forth likewise? Take into consideration,
moreover, that this is one of the hardiest speculations in the world.
You may die before the kinsman you hope to inherit. You may be thrown
from your horse at a fox-hunt or a steeplechase and break your neck; you
may be shot through the head in a duel; or a fever or a cold may seize
you, and I shall be obliged to go into mourning for my dear departed
three hundred thousand francs. But let us go further. So far as you are
concerned it is not enough that I pay your debts. You will want at least
twice that amount to live upon every year. Good! I am ready to