o my delight, I
was now left to myself, to regulate my father's affairs, and to settle
plans for my own future conduct.

CHAPTER XLIX

He becomes heir to property which is not to be found, and his suspicions
thereon.

My father having died without a will, I was, of course, proclaimed his
sole heir without any opposition, and consequently, all those who
had aspired to be sharers of his property, balked by my unexpected
appearance, immediately withdrew to vent their disappointment in abusing
me. They represented me as a wretch, devoid of all respect for my
parents, as one without religion, an adventurer in the world, and the
companion of luties and wandering dervishes.

As I had no intention of remaining at Ispahan, I treated their
endeavours to hurt me with contempt; and consoled myself by giving them
a full return of all their scurrility, by expressions which neither
they nor their fathers had ever heard; expressions I had picked up from
amongst the illustrious characters with whom I had passed the first
years of my youth.

When we were left to ourselves, my mother and I, after having bewailed
in sufficiently pathetic language, she the death of a husband, I the
loss of a father, the following conversation took place:--

'Now tell me, O my mother--for there can be no secrets between us--tell
me the state of Kerbelai Hassan's concerns. He loved you, and confided
in you, and you must therefore be better acquainted with them than any
one else.'

'What do I know of them, my son?' said she, in great haste, and seeming
confusion.

I stopped her, to continue my speech. 'You know that according to the
law, his heir is bound to pay his debts:--they must be ascertained.
Then, the expenses of the funeral are to be defrayed; they will be
considerable; and at present I am as destitute of means as on the day
you gave me birth. To meet all this, money is necessary; or else both
mine and my father's name will be disgraced among men, and my enemies
will not fail to overcome me. He must have been reputed wealthy, or
else his death-bed would never have been surrounded by that host
of blood-suckers and time-servers which have been driven away by my
presence. You, my mother, must tell me where he was accustomed to
deposit his ready cash; who were, or who are, likely to be his debtors;
and what might be his possessions, besides those which are apparent.'

'Oh, Allah!' exclaimed she, 'what words are these? Your father was a