But he only nodded his head, as if he understood the matter completely.
"If a child were to be born to me," continued Karpathy, and, in a sudden outburst of merriment, he banged the table with his fist, "why, it would be enough to make me live my life over again.

I am not superstitious, sir; but when I was lying on my death-bed, a heavenly vision gave me the assurance that, to the wonder of my fellows, I should return from the realm of death, though everybody looked upon me as a dead man already; and the mere fact of my recovering my strength and good humour is proof enough to me that that vision was no false dream.

I mean to marry.

And now you shall hear how that concerns you.

You have a young ward--a girl whom Abellino persecutes, and Abellino's associates lay bets with each other as to who shall win her first, as if it were a horse-race.