"Good heavens!" said the Councillor impatiently. "I can quite understand that for the sake of appearances you would prefer to sell to a man of position rather than to a provisional board, although the man of position in question is a member of that very board; but you must not forget that we should pay you as much, or nearly as much, directly as we must afterwards pay to the Count." "The Count will not get off so cheaply either as you seem to think." "Then he will sell so much the dearer to us," said the Councillor; "and it will be so much the worse for us." "Nevertheless I must refuse my support in this matter, to my great regret," answered Giraldi decidedly. The Councillor looked very much disgusted. "The best of it is," he said sulkily, "that he cannot find the money--not even a hundred thousand, and still less the million or whatever sum we decide upon as the price of the land. He must come to us then; I know nobody else who would advance him so much at once, or even in instalments. I can tell him, however, beforehand, without being Merlin the Wise, that we shall not let him have the money cheap, so it will come to the same thing in the end. But now, my honoured patron, I must make room for the Count and take leave of you. Give my best regards to the lady, whom unfortunately I have not yet the honour of knowing, but for whom I have always had the deepest respect, and for whom I have broken many a lance in knightly fashion. And not in vain, for this family visit--I met Fräulein Sidonie in the hall, Fräulein Elsa had hastened on in front--is a concession which I may, without vanity, look upon as the result of my powers of persuasion. Apropos of my dear old friend Sidonie, you wished to know yesterday what it was that had actually decided the matter of the betrothal and put an end to Ottomar's obstinate resistance." "Well?" asked Giraldi, with unfeigned curiosity. "I do not know," said the Councillor, with his finger on his long nose; "that is to say, my dear friend does not know, or she was sure to have told me. According to the servant's evidence--that was all she could tell me--an interview took place the night before between the father and son; but I have every reason to suspect that the subject was no romantic one, but on the contrary, the equally prosaic and inexhaustible one of Ottomar's debts. Farewell, my dear and honoured patron!--You will keep me informed?" "Be assured of it." The Councillor was gone. Giraldi's dark eyes were still fixed on the door; a smile of the deepest contempt played upon his lips. "_Buffone!_" he murmured. CHAPTER IV.