To-day I shall count the contents of these three sacks all over again. I must have made a mistake in my last reckoning. There are three louis missing. Three louis are sixty francs, which make a considerable difference in a total of six hundred thousand francs. It's quite impossible to sleep with that anxiety on one's mind. Each of these three sacks ought to hold two hundred thousand francs, the first and second in louis of twenty francs and the third in ten-franc pieces. I shall empty them on the carpet first to see what a lovely heap they make.... (_He empties the contents of the first sack on the carpet_.) How they sparkle, how they sparkle!... What a lot of them there are!... When you see the gold spreading itself out, it's impossible to believe that it all could go into one sack!... Let's have another.... This is the sack with the little ten-franc pieces.... (_He empties a second sack_.) They are as lovely as the big ones.... They are younger, that's all, and there are more of them.... Now let's see what the third holds.... (_He empties the third sack. A few gold coins roll of the carpet. He throws himself flat on the floor to catch them_.) Oh, no, oh, no, children!... This won't do!... You mustn't run away like that!... Nothing is allowed to leave this cave!... Trying to hide yourselves, are you? To go where, pray? Don't you know that there's no place like home?... Fancy running away like that from daddy! I should never have thought it of you! This way, children, this way, darlings. This way, my pretty ones! Back to the heap, back to the cradle, then you'll be happy!... (_He picks up a coin which has rolled farther than the rest_.) Don't do it again, you: you're always making off; you're a little torment and you set a bad example. Beg my pardon, or I'll punish you. You shall be the first to be spent; I'll give you to a beggar, do you hear?... (_Kissing it_.) No, no, I'm only pretending.... There, there, don't cry!... I was merely frightening you.... I love you all the same, but don't do it again!... Here, here, here, they're here, in front of me and all around me.... It will take me quite a fortnight to count them all and to weigh them in my scales.... What a lot of them, what a lot of them! And how pretty they are!... I know them every one, I could call them by their names.... They would need a hundred and twenty thousand different names; and each of those names stands for a treasure!... (_He rolls on the carpet amidst the gold_.) I love to see them close!... Oh, what a cosy bed! And what a joy it is to be among one's daughters!... For they are my daughters: I brought them into the world; I have nurtured them, protected them from harm, fondled and pampered them; I know their history, the trouble they've given me, but all is forgotten: they love me, I love them and we shall never part again!... Oh, what a fine thing happiness is!... (_He fills his two hands with the gold, makes it trickle over his heart, on