shall see. How much does your yearly income from the Bondavara
estate amount to?"

"About twenty thousand florins."

"How large is the estate?"

"From about nine to ten thousand acres."

"Then the return is far too small. The agent is to blame for this;
this income would be too little to support the position you now intend
to hold. Twenty thousand florins would not be nearly enough to keep up
an establishment on a proper footing in Pesth."

The countess was surprised. She said, humbly, "I imagined it was a
great deal of money."

"So it is for living in the country; but Pesth is as dear, if not
dearer, than Paris. To keep a proper establishment going, and take the
position of a leader of society, such as it is your ambition to be,
you must at least command a yearly income of forty thousand florins."

"But I cannot do that. What shall I do?" Theudelinde said, in great
distress.

The abbe's lips parted in a smile. "Oh, we will manage it for you! For
the rest it will not be difficult. The rental of the estate must be
overhauled; you must get a better agent, a more enterprising steward.
I myself do not understand finance, but I have friends in the inner
circle of the stock-exchange, and one or other of these will undertake
to advise you as to your affairs when you are settled in Pesth. In any
case, I am quite certain that your land is let too low, it should
bring in double the interest you get from it. I know so much of
political economy."

The countess was delighted at these words. What a friend to have! Her
income to be doubled! Truly this abbe was sent to her from heaven.

"Do as you think best," she said. "I give you full power to act for
me."

"Then, if you will allow me, I shall have your property revalued, and
fresh leases made. This will double your income, and it will only cost
you a trifle--a factor's fee, in fact."

Theudelinde was like a child in her joy--like a child in her
submission to her spiritual adviser, to whom she looked up as a
father, a counsellor, a true friend.

All this he might be; but it was also true that from the date of this
conversation the owner of Bondavara lost her hold on her own property
forever.

CHAPTER IX

"AN OBSTINATE FELLOW"

Countess Theudelinde was beside herself with joy. She ran to her
bell-apparatus, touched the spring, and the machine put itself into
motion.

"What are you doing, countess?" asked the abbe, in some amazement.

"I am desiring m