g to come to one, if he looks around
carefully. And now let us speak of serious things.

_Andre_--Yes, by all means. Father, are you not disposed to settle
down?

_Count_--What do you mean by "settle down"?

_Andre_--To save money, for one thing.

_Count_--Save money! I should be charmed to do so; but I really do not
see how we can do it. We certainly live as modestly as possible. This
house belongs to us; we have only four saddle horses, four carriage
horses, a couple of extra horses for evening service (we could not get
along with less), two coachmen, two valets, two grooms, one cook. Why,
we haven't even a housekeeper.

_Andre_--No, we only want that!

_Count_--We never receive any except masculine society; we certainly
are not extravagant as to the table. Look at me here: I am
breakfasting this minute on two eggs and a glass of water. It seems to
me that with our fortune--

_Andre_--Our fortune? Would you like to know in what condition our
fortune is?

_Count_--You ought to know better than I, since it is you who have had
the running of affairs since your majority.

_Andre_--Well then, I _do_ know the expenses; and let me tell you that
you have counted up only those that are part of our life in Paris, and
you have not said a syllable of those that belong to our country one.

_Count_--Those that belong to our country one! Those are all just so
much economy.

_Andre_--So then the place at Vilsac is just so much economy?

_Count_--Of course. We get everything from it, from eggs up to oxen.

_Andre_--Yes, and even to wild boars, when it suits you to shoot one.
Now be so good as to consider the place at Vilsac, which you call a
matter of economy. First of all, it brings us in absolutely nothing.

_Count_--It never has brought us in anything.

_Andre_--It is mortgaged for two hundred thousand francs.

_Count_--That happened when I was young.

_Andre_--Are you under the impression that there comes a time when
mortgages wear themselves out? I wish they did. But I am afraid that
you deceive yourself; and in the mean time, you are paying every year
a mortgagor's interest. Furthermore, at Vilsac--

_Count_--Where, remember, we spend September, October, November, all
of which is positively an economy--

_Andre_--Furthermore, as to Vilsac, this summer place where we pass
September, October, and November,--all of which is positively an
economy,--the proof of its being an economy is that here we are in the