"Those are words no man can apply to my father in my presence." The Count stared, shrugged his shoulders, and replied with 'sang froid,' "Marquis, if you are contented with your father's conduct, of course it is no business of mine: he never injured me.

I presume, however, that, considering my years and my character, you come to me for advice: is it so ?" Alain bowed his head in assent.
"There are four courses for one in your position to take," said the Count, placing the index of the right hand successively on the thumb and three fingers of the left,--"four courses, and no more.
"First.

To do as your notary recommended: consolidate your mortgages, patch up your income as you best can, return to Rochebriant, and devote the rest of your existence to the preservation of your property.

By that course your life will be one of permanent privation, severe struggle; and the probability is that you will not succeed: there will come one or two bad seasons, the farmers will fail to pay, the mortgagee will foreclose, and you may find yourself, after twenty years of anxiety and torment, prematurely old and without a sou.
"Course the second.

Rochebriant, though so heavily encumbered as to yield you some such income as your father gave to his chef de cuisine, is still one of those superb 'terres' which bankers and Jews and stock-jobbers court and hunt after, for which they will give enormous sums.