“Lay her aside with last year’s _modes fanées_,”[58] the copy hastened to add. “I cannot do that,” said the general. 191 “Stale Spanish morality!’” exclaimed the capitalist, bursting into a laugh. “Does the fair creature expect to find an Amadeus of Gaul in a general of the age of enlightenment?” “Or a Pastor Fido in one who aspires to become a father to his country?” put in _Boni_. “The fact is,” replied our friend, “that in my connection with Lucia there have been exceptional circumstances.” “Tell them to us, little one,” said his intimate. “The romantic tale will flavor the coffee.” The general related all the preliminaries and particulars of his relations with Lucia. “Don’t you see, general,” said the imitator of the tone Parisian, “that it was all a farce, very well got up, by those _fourbes rustics_ to set you on; alarm you; interest you in the girl, and oblige you to take her?” “That it was all an intrigue of _las étage_?” added the copy of the copy. “_Apropos_ of impositions,” said the capitalist, “I must tell you what happened to me yesterday. A fellow came into my office--” “Don’t omit,” said _Boni_, “that you were counting an immense sum of money at the time, for that is what heightens the joke.” “He asked me,” continued Creseus, “if I would lend him two doubloons. I told him that it cost me the greatest pain to be obliged to refuse, but that I had not sixpence by me.” “If I had not wished to give, I would have sought another reply,” said an old general--uncle to ours--who had lost a leg in the battle of Bailen. “General,” replied the narrator, “among us, _I have not_ is synonymous with _I will not_; even sucking-babes understand it.” “A synonym which Huertas has omitted, but which is known in these days, even in the Batuecas,” chimed the repeater. “It could not have existed when he composed his work,” said the general. “The fellow,” proceeded the narrator, “begged and implored, lowering his demand to the most insignificant sum. I was as inexorable as destiny.” And the millionaire cast around him a look worthy of Cato. “He was, then, in real need, and not an impostor?” questioned the old general. “O sir!--general rule--every one that asks is an impostor.” “Unless he is an intimate friend,” said _Boni_, speaking this time with unaccustomed personality. “_Ma foi_,”[59] answered the Gaul_ish_ Spaniard, “I except no one. Seeing that he was not going to desist, and always with the amiability and delicacy that must be used in such cases--” “_Sans doute_, the same as in affairs of honor,” said the bad copy of a worse original. “I told him that, since his necessity was so extreme, I would venture to lend him--not money, for I had none--but something that would be of more use to him in his circumstances. The imbecile thought, perhaps, that it was going to be my signature.”