Giovanni. 'I will buy it from
you on the spot.'

'Oh, the dirty creature is quite mad!' thought the gentleman. 'I shall
just accept his offer for a joke.' And aloud he said: ' All right;
follow me, and we will go to a lawyer and get him to make a contract.'
And Don Giovanni followed him, and an agreement was drawn up by which
the house was to be sold at once, and a large sum of money paid down in
eight days. Then the Don went to an inn, where he hired two rooms, and,
standing in one of them, said to his purse, ' Dear purse, fill this room
with gold;' and when the eight days were up it was so full you could not
have put in another sovereign.

When the owner of the house came to take away his money Don Giovanni
led him into the room and said: 'There, just pocket what you want.' The
gentleman stared with open mouth at the astonishing sight; but he had
given his word to sell the house, so he took his money, as he was told,
and went away with his wife to look for some place to live in. And Don
Giovanni left the inn and dwelt in the beautiful rooms, where his rags
and dirt looked sadly out of place. And every day these got worse and
worse.

By-and-bye the fame of his riches reached the ears of the king, and, as
he himself was always in need of money, he sent for Don Giovanni, as he
wished to borrow a large sum. Don Giovanni readily agreed to lend him
what he wanted, and sent next day a huge waggon laden with sacks of
gold.

'Who can he be?' thought the king to himself. 'Why, he is much richer
than I!'

The king took as much as he had need of; then ordered the rest to be
returned to Don Giovanni, who refused to receive it, saying, 'Tell his
majesty I am much hurt at his proposal. I shall certainly not take
back that handful of gold, and, if he declines to accept it, keep it
yourself.'

The servant departed and delivered the message, and the king wondered
more than ever how anyone could be so rich. At last he spoke to the
queen: 'Dear wife, this man has done me a great service, and has,
besides, behaved like a gentleman in not allowing me to send back the
money. I wish to give him the hand of our eldest daughter.'

The queen was quite pleased at this idea, and again messenger was sent
to Don Giovanni, offering him the hand of the eldest princess.

'His majesty is too good,' he replied. 'I can only humbly accept the
honour.'

The messenger took back this answer, but a second time returned with the
request that Don