We thus arrive at a total of one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five francs, which, reduced to English money at the average standard of twenty-five francs to the sovereign, represents the exact sum of seventy-five pounds.

Do I make myself understood ?" I bowed for the third time.
"Of the original one hundred and five pounds, we now have thirty not accounted for.

May I ask how much of that surplus you have left ?" "About--not more than--than a hundred and twenty francs," I replied, stripping the feathers off all the pens in succession, without knowing it.
"Have you any debts ?" "A--a few." "Tailors' bills ?" "Yes, sir." "What others ?" "A--a couple of months' rent, I believe, sir." "Is that all ?" "N--not quite." Dr.Cheron frowned, and looked again at his watch.
"Be good enough, Mr.Arbuthnot," he said, "to spare me this amount of useless interrogation by at once stating the nature and amount of the rest." "I--I cannot positively state the amount, sir," I said, absurdly trying to get the paper-weight into my waistcoat pocket, and then putting it down in great confusion.

"I--I have an account at Monceau's in the Rue Duphot, and..." "I beg your pardon," interrupted Dr.Cheron: "but who is Monceau ?" "Monceau's--Monceau's livery-stables, sir." Dr.Cheron slightly raised his eye-brows, and entered the name.
"And at Lavoisier's, on the Boulevard Poissonniere--" "What is sold, pray, at Lavoisier's ?" "Gloves, perfumes, hosiery, ready-made linen..." "Enough--you can proceed." "I have also a bill at--at Barbet's, in the Passage de l'Opera." "And Barbet is-- ?" "A--a florist!" I replied, very reluctantly.
"Humph!--a florist!" observed Dr.Cheron, again transfixing me with the cold, blue eye.

"To what amount do you suppose you are indebted to Monsieur Barbet ?" I looked down, and became utterly unintelligible.
"Fifty francs ?" "I--I fear, more than--than--" "A hundred?
A hundred and fifty?
Two hundred ?" "About two hundred, I suppose, sir," I said desperately.
"Two hundred francs--that is to say, eight pounds English--to your florist! Really, Mr.Arbuthnot, you must be singularly fond of flowers!" I looked down in silence.
"Have you a conservatory attached to your rooms ?" The skeleton clock struck the half hour.
"Excuse me, sir," I said, driven now to the last extremity, "but--but I have an engagement which--in short, I will, if you please, make out a list of--of these items, ascertaining the correct amount of each; and when once paid, I will endeavor--I mean, it is my earnest desire, to--to limit my expenditure strictly to--in short, to study economy for the future.