he desire which has irritated my nerves
during the last hour. To possess two hundred crowns, to be as rich as a
banker, to feel my pockets weighed down by gold, and still unable to feast
my eyes on the treasure! Now I am alone; there is no one to ask whence it
came. The time has arrived. I may enjoy my wealth without anxiety!"

He drew an arm-chair to the table, reclined in it comfortably, with
extended limbs, and placed the gold coin by handfuls under the light of
the lamp.

After searching his pocket and doublet and convincing himself that all the
crowns were spread out before him, he heaped them up and ran his hands
through them as if to enjoy the sparkle and jingle of the gold. He held
his breath, for fear of losing the least sound; with eyes wide open he
contemplated the brilliant treasure.

For a long time Julio remained, with a smile of happiness upon his lips,
in mute admiration, and, perhaps scarcely aware of what he was doing, he
ranged the crowns in a line and counted them; then he separated them into
piles of twenty pieces each; then he tossed them from hand to hand, until,
wearied of this amusement, he looked at them musingly. At last he
exclaimed in a joyous outbreak:

"Two hundred crowns! What will I do with them? How will I spend them?
Shall I drink Malmsey, Muscatel, the very best, such as brings pleasure to
the heart? But at that rate I shall soon see the end of my money. Shall I
play for florins and crowns? That would be an excellent means, certainly,
of either becoming a hundred times richer or of losing every farthing.
Strange! how fearful and avaricious money makes me! I do not even care to
play; no, I will not do it. I will dress like a nobleman: in satin,
velvet, and silk; I will drink and eat of the most exquisite dishes; I
will Jive in luxury and abundance, as though the world were a terrestrial
paradise. Ah, what a glorious life!

"But what a cowardly wretch I am! My only anxiety is to know how to spend
or rather squander this treasure, and at this moment there lives, far from
me, one who perhaps is stretching out her hand to me to beg an alms! My
poor mother! she may even need bread. Were she to curse her ungrateful
son, would he not have deserved it a hundred times? I am afraid of myself!
With ten crowns, with the twentieth part of what I am going to throw away
in dissipation, she might be saved from misery for more than a year. Why
did I not give twenty crowns to my master to send to he