Just fancy, the inheritance, the rich property, was almost in my hands; I hasten to the spot in order to enter into my rights, and I find that some one has been before me, and sits comfortably in possession." "I understand," said the banker, with a cunning smile, "some evil-disposed usurper is in actual possession, Monseigneur Karpathy, of the property that was so nearly yours, and will not recognize your rights, but stupidly appeals to that big book, among whose many paragraphs you will also find these words written, 'There is no inheriting the living.'" The young dandy stared at the banker with all his eyes.
"How much do you know ?" he cried.
"I know this much--the evil usurper who makes so free with your inheritance is none other than your uncle himself, who is so lacking in discretion as to sufficiently come to himself again after a stroke of apoplexy, with the aid of a hastily applied lancet, to do you out of your property, and place you in such an awkward position that you cannot find a single article in that thick code of laws of yours which will enable you to bring an action against your uncle, because he had the indecency not to die." "Then it is a scandal," cried Karpathy, leaping from his seat.

"I have everywhere been proclaiming that I intend to bring an action." "Pray keep quiet," remarked the banker, blandly.

"Every one believes what you say, but I must know the truth, because I am a banker.

But I am accustomed to keep silence.

The family relations of the Rajah of Nepaul in the East Indies are as well-known to me as is the mode of life of the greatest Spanish grandee, and it is as useful to me to know of the _embarras de richesses_ of the one as of the splendour-environed poverty of the other.