advance
you that also."

At these words Karpathy eagerly turned towards the banker again.

"You are joking?"

"Not in the least. I risk a million to gain two. I risk two millions to
gain four, and so on. I speak frankly. I give much and I lose much. At
the present moment you are in no better a position than Juan de Castro,
who raised a loan on half his moustache from the Saracens of Toledo.
Come now! an Hungarian gentleman's moustache is no worse than a
Spaniard's. I will advance you on it as much as you command, and I'll
boldly venture to doubt whether there is any one except myself and the
Moors of Toledo who would do such a thing? I can answer for nobody
imitating me."

"Good! Let us come to terms," said Abellino taking the matter seriously.
"You give me a million, and I'll give you a bond for two millions,
payable when my uncle expires."

"And if your uncle's vital thread in the hands of the Parcae prove longer
than the million in your hands?"

"Then you shall give me another million, and so on. You will be
investing your money well, for the Hungarian gentleman is the slave of
his property, and can leave it to nobody but his lawful heir."

"And are you quite certain that you will be the one lawful heir?"

"None but me will bear the name of Karpathy after John Karpathy's
death."

"I know that; but John Karpathy may marry."

Abellino burst out laughing. "You imagine my uncle to be a very amiable
sort of cavalier."

"Not at all. I know very well that he stands at the very brink of death,
and that his vital machinery is so completely out of order that if he
does not change his diet immediately, and give up his gluttonous habits,
of which there is but little hope, I regret to say, he will scarcely
live another year. Pardon me for anticipating so bluntly the decease of
a dear relative!"

"Go on, by all means."

"We who have to do with life assurance transactions are in the habit of
appraising the lives of people, and I am regarding your uncle's life
just as if it had been insured in one of these institutions."

"Your scruples are superfluous. I have no tender concern whatever for my
uncle."

The banker smiled. He knew that even better than Abellino.

"I said just now that your uncle might marry. It would not be a very
rare occurrence. It often happens that elderly gentlemen, who for eighty
years have regarded matrimony with horror, suddenly, in a tender moment,
offer their hands to the very first you