“And why don’t you abandon me to my deserts?” said he.

“ You ask me why!” returned my aunt. “What a heart you must have!”

He stood moodily rattling the money, and shaking his head, until at length he said:

“Is this all you mean to give me, then?”

“It is all I can give you,” said my aunt. “You know I have had losses, and am poorer than I used to be. I have told you so. Having got it, why do you give me the pain of looking at you for another moment, and seeing what you have become?”

“I have become shabby enough, if you mean that,” he said. “I lead the life of an owl.”