s an excuse for
his change of mind; and he asked me not only to resign all hope of his
daughter, but to conceal from her new suitor that I had ever ventured to
hope."

"And you consented?"

"I consented."

"That was generous. You must indeed have been much attached to your
kinsman. As a lover, I cannot comprehend it; perhaps, my dear count, you
may enable me to understand it better--as a man of the world."

"Well," said the count, with his most roue air, "I suppose we are both
men of the world?"

"Both! certainly," replied Randal, just in the tone which Peachum might
have used in courting the confidence of Lockit.

"As a man of the world, then, I own," said the count, playing with the
rings on his fingers, "that if I could not marry the lady myself (and
that seemed to me clear), it was very natural that I should wish to see
her married to my wealthy kinsman."

"Very natural; it might bring your wealthy kinsman and yourself still
closer together."

"This is really a very clever fellow!" thought the count, but he made no
direct reply.

"Enfin, to cut short a long story, my cousin afterwards got entangled in
attempts, the failure of which is historically known. His projects were
detected, himself denounced. He fled, and the emperor, in sequestrating
his estates, was pleased, with rare and singular clemency, to permit
me, as his nearest kinsman, to enjoy the revenues of half those estates
during the royal pleasure; nor was the other half formally confiscated.
It was no doubt his Majesty's desire not to extinguish a great Italian
name; and if my cousin and his child died in exile, why, of that name,
I, a loyal subject of Austria,--I, Franzini, Count di Peschiera, would
become the representative. Such, in a similar case, has been sometimes
the Russian policy towards Polish insurgents."

"I comprehend perfectly; and I can also conceive that you, in profiting
so largely, though so justly, by the fall of your kinsman, may have been
exposed to much unpopularity, even to painful suspicion."

"Entre nous, mon cher, I care not a stiver for popularity; and as to
suspicion, who is he that can escape from the calumny of the envious?
But, unquestionably, it would be most desirable to unite the divided
members of our house; and this union I can now effect by the consent
of the emperor to my marriage with my kinsman's daughter. You see,
therefore, why I have so great an interest in this research?"

"By the marriage article