duct Annette's sister to Bagnigge Wells."

"And what should we do at Bagnigge Wells?"

"Do!" said Francis Ardry. "Dance!"

"But," said I, "I scarcely know anything of dancing."

"Then here's an excellent opportunity of improving yourself. Like most
Frenchwomen, she dances divinely; however, if you object to Bagnigge
Wells and dancing, go to Brighton, and remain there a month or two, at
the end of which time you can return with your mind refreshed and
invigorated, and materials, perhaps, for a tale or novel."

"I never heard a more foolish plan," said I, "or one less likely to
terminate profitably or satisfactorily. I thank you, however, for your
offer, which is, I daresay, well meant. If I am to escape from my cares
and troubles, and find my mind refreshed and invigorated, I must adopt
other means than conducting a French demoiselle to Brighton or Bagnigge
Wells, defraying the expense by borrowing from a friend."

CHAPTER XLIX.

The Armenian! I frequently saw this individual, availing myself of the
permission which he had given me to call upon him. A truly singular
personage was he, with his love of amassing money, and his nationality so
strong as to be akin to poetry. Many an Armenian I have subsequently
known fond of money-getting, and not destitute of national spirit; but
never another, who, in the midst of his schemes of lucre, was at all
times willing to enter into a conversation on the structure of the Haik
language, or who ever offered me money to render into English the fables
of Z--- in the hope of astonishing the stock-jobbers of the Exchange with
the wisdom of the Haik Esop.

But he was fond of money, very fond. Within a little time I had won his
confidence to such a degree that he informed me that the grand wish of
his heart was to be possessed of two hundred thousand pounds.

"I think you might satisfy yourself with the half," said I. "One hundred
thousand pounds is a large sum."

"You are mistaken," said the Armenian, "a hundred thousand pounds is
nothing. My father left me that or more at his death. No; I shall never
be satisfied with less than two."

"And what will you do with your riches," said I, "when you have obtained
them? Will you sit down and muse upon them, or will you deposit them in
a cellar, and go down once a day to stare at them? I have heard say that
the fulfilment of one's wishes is invariably the precursor of extreme
misery, and forsooth I can scarcely conce