middle of September, and we are just setting out for Dieppe.

_Count_--For one time only, by chance! And moreover, we will have to
go down to Vilsac by the end of the month, for I have asked those
fellows to come down there for the shooting.

_Andre_--Yes, in this economical country place, where you have asked
all those gentlemen to come down for the shooting, at the end of the
month--

_Count_--Really, one would be bored to death without that!

_Andre_--In this same economical establishment, I say, you have twelve
keepers.

_Count_--Quite true; but it is one of the best preserves in France,
and really, there are so many poachers--

_Andre_--You have two masters of hounds, you have ten horses,--in
short, a whole hunting equipage; and I don't speak of the indemnities
that you pay year by year, if only for the rabbits that you kill.

_Count_--The fact is, there _are_ thousands of rabbits; but shooting
rabbits is such fun!

_Andre_--Add to that the entertainments that it occurs to you to give
every now and then, with fireworks and so on, during the evening.

_Count_--Oh, yes, but that pleases all the peasants of the
neighborhood, who adore me; between ourselves it _is_ rather--Oh, my
dear boy! if I had only been rich, what fine things I would have done!
In France, people do not know how to spend money. In Russia it is
quite another matter! Now, there you have people who understand how to
give an entertainment. But then what can anybody do with two hundred
thousand livres for an income?

_Andre_--Father, one can do exactly what you have done,--one can ruin
himself.

_Count_--What! ruin himself?

_Andre_--Yes. When my mother died your personal fortune brought you,
as you say, an income of two hundred thousand livres; and the money
which my mother left to me, of which you have had the use until I came
of age, amounted to a hundred and twenty thousand livres.

_Count_--I certainly have made an accounting to you in the matter.

_Andre_--A perfectly exact one, only--

_Count_--Only--?

_Andre_--Only in doing so you have seriously impaired your own
capital.

_Count_--Why did you not say that to me at the time?

_Andre_--Because I too--I was thinking of nothing but spending money.

_Count_--You ought to have warned me about this before now.

_Andre_--But I--I was doing then just what I see you doing; I was
taking life exactly as you had taught me to take it.

_Count_--Andre, I hope that is not a reproac