abstract：`Myfriend,Iwilldie,perpetuatingthesystemunderwhichIhavelived.'Whenhehadsaidit,hetookaculminatingpinc

`My friend, I will die, perpetuating the system under which I have lived.'

When he had said it, he took a culminating pinch of Snuff, and put his box in his pocket.

`Better to be a rational creature,' he added then, after ringing a small bell on the table, `and accept your natural destiny. But you are lost, Monsieur Charles, I see.'

`This property and France are lost to me,' said the nephew, sadly; `I renounce them.'

`Are they both yours to renounce? France may be, but is the property? It is scarcely worth mentioning; but, is it yet?'

`I had no intention, in the words I used, to claim it yet. If it passed to me from you, to-morrow---

`Which I have the vanity to hope is not probable.'

`You do me too much honour,' said the Marquis; `still, I prefer that supposition.'