n."

I promised the strictest attention, and kept my word till I found myself
in a maze of figures where compound interest and decimal fractions
danced a reel together, whose evolutions would have driven Mr. Babbage
distracted; while the Governor, now grown "warm in the harness," kept
exclaiming at every instant, "Do you see how the 'Ladrones' want to
cheat us here? Do you perceive what the Picaros intend by that?"

If I could not follow his arithmetic, I could at least sympathize in his
enthusiasm; and I praised the honor of the Mexicans, while I denounced
"the cause of roguery" over the face of the globe, to his heart's
content.

"You are satisfied about the original debt, Senhor Conde?" at last said
he, after a "four-mile heat" of explanation.

"Most thoroughly," said I, bowing.

"You'd not wish for anything farther on that head?"

"Not a syllable."

"And as to the Cuba instalment, you see the way in which the first scrip
became entangled in the Chihuahua 'fives,' don't you?"

"Plain as my hand before me."

"Then, of course, you acknowledge our right to the reserve fund?"

"I don't see how it can be disputed," said I.

"And yet that is precisely what the Madrid Government contest!"

"What injustice!" exclaimed I.

"Evident as it is to your enlightened understanding, Senhor Conde, you
are, nevertheless, the first man I have ever found to take the right
view of this transaction. It is a real pleasure to discuss a state
question with a great man."

Hereupon we both burst forth into an animated duet of compliments, in
which, I am bound to confess, the Governor was the victor.

"And now, Senhor Conde," said he, after a long volley of panegyric, "may
we reckon upon your support in this affair?"

"You must understand, first of all, Excellenza," replied I, "that I am
not in any way an official personage. I am,"--here I smiled with a most
fascinating air of mock humility,--"I am, so to speak, a humble--a very
humble--individual, of unpretending rank and small fortune."

"Ah, Senhor Conde," sighed the Governor, for he had heard of my ingots
from the banker.

"Being as I say," resumed I, "my influence is naturally small. If I
am listened to in a matter of political importance, I owe the courtesy
rather to the memory of my family's services than to any insignificant
merits I may possess. The cause of justice is, however, never weak, no
matter how humble the means of him who asserts it. Such as I am, rely
u