d or two concerning him who was
the cause of the bitterest moments of my life. I mean my nephew, who was
christened Bela, but who calls himself Abellino. I will not reckon up
the sins he has committed against God, his country, and myself. God and
his country forgive him, as I have forgiven him; but I should be a liar
and a hypocrite before God if I said, at this hour, that I loved him. I
feel as cold towards him as towards one whom I have never seen. And now
he is reduced to the beggar's staff; now he has more debts than the
hairs of his head. What will become of him? He cannot work--he has never
earned a penny; he has never learnt anything: he is bankrupt both in
body and mind. He is not likely to take his own life, for libertines do
not readily become suicides. And far be the thought of such a thing from
him. I desire it not. Let him live. Let him have time to turn to God!
Nor do I wish him to be a beggar, to feel want, to beg his bread at
other men's doors. I order, therefore, that my agent at Pest shall pay
him a gold ducat down every day. I fancy that will be quite enough to
keep anybody from suffering want. But this ducat he himself must come
and fetch day by day, and it must be paid to nobody but himself
personally. But every time he fails to come for such ducat it shall be
forfeited to the lawyer, and it must in no case be attached for debt, or
paid to him in advance. But every time my birthday, John Baptist's Day,
comes round, he shall receive a lump sum of one hundred ducats down
extra. It is my wish that he should rejoice beforehand at the coming of
that day every year, and that he should thus remember me from year to
year.

"And now my business with the world is over. I have no other kinsmen to
remember. My friends I can easily count up. I only know of three to whom
I can really give that name. The first is Rudolf, to him I have left my
child. The second is Mike Kis. He, also, was always a good fellow, who
loved me right well. Whenever misfortune came, he was always to be found
by my side. To him I leave my favourite horse and my favourite dog. I
could not leave them a better master, or him a more pleasant keepsake.
My third good friend is my steward, Peter Varga."

"Oh, sir!" the other old man would have murmured; but his tongue refused
to move.

"To him I leave my old servant Paul, and old Vidra the jester, and the
Lapayi property. May he live there happily with my two faithful
servants.

"All my agen