"My sister!" groaned the Count--"daughter to a Peschiera, widow to di Negra!" There was something affecting in the proud woe of this grand patrician. "What is the sum?" whispered Frank, anxious that the poor Count should not overhear him: and indeed the Count seemed too stunned and overwhelmed to hear any thing less loud than a clap of thunder. "We may settle all liabilities for £500. Nothing to Peschiera, who is enormously rich. _Entre nous_, I doubt his assurance that he is without ready money. It may be so, but--" "£500! How can I raise such a sum!" "You, my dear Hazeldean? What are you talking about? To be sure, you could raise twice as much with a stroke of your pen, and throw your own debts into the bargain. But--to be so generous to an acquaintance!" "Acquaintance--Madame di Negra!--the height of my ambition is to claim her as my wife!" "And these debts don't startle you?" "If a man loves," answered Frank, simply, "he feels it most when the woman he loves is in affliction. And," he added, after a pause, "though these debts are faults, kindness at this moment may give me the power to cure forever both her faults and my own. I can raise this money by a stroke of the pen! How?" "On the Casino property." Frank drew back. "No other way?" "Of course not. But I know your scruples; let us see if they can be conciliated. You would marry Madame di Negra; she will have £20,000 on her wedding-day. Why not arrange that, out of this sum, your anticipative charge on the Casino property be paid at once? Thus, in truth, it will be but for a few weeks that the charge will exist. The bond will remain locked in my desk--it can never come to your father's knowledge, nor wound his feelings. And when, you marry (if you will but be prudent in the meanwhile), you will not owe a debt in the world." Here the Count suddenly started up. "Mr. Hazeldean, I asked you to stay and aid us by your counsel; I see now that counsel is unavailing. This blow on our house must fall! I thank you, Sir--I thank you. Farewell. Levy, come with me to my poor sister, and prepare her for the worst." "Count," said Frank, "hear me. My acquaintance with you is but slight, but I have long known and--and esteemed your sister. Baron Levy has suggested a mode in which I can have the honor and the happiness of removing this temporary but painful embarrassment. I can advance the money." "No--no!" exclaimed Peschiera. "How can you suppose that I will hear of such a proposition? Your youth and benevolence mislead and blind you. Impossible, sir--impossible! Why, even if I had no pride, no delicacy of my own, my sister's fair fame--" "Would suffer indeed," interrupted Levy, "if she were under such obligation to any one but her affianced husband. Nor, whatever my regard for you, Count, could I suffer my client, Mr. Hazeldean, to make this advance upon any less valid security than that of the fortune to which Madame di Negra is entitled."