She is
the last of those fair flowers! Ah me! How sad a thing it is to
part with those we love so well! But we have the consolation of
knowing that it is for their good, that consolation, that
satisfaction which only come to us when we have faithfully done
our duty. Return to your library, therefore, Meschini, for the
present. The consciousness of good well done is yours also to-day,
and will soothe the hours of solitude and make your new labours
sweet. The reward of righteousness is in itself and of itself.
Good-bye, my friend, good-bye! Thank you, thank you--"
"Would it be agreeable to your Excellency to let me have the money
now?" asked the librarian. There was a firmness in the tone that
startled Montevarchi.
"What money?" he inquired with a well-feigned surprise. "I do not
understand."
"Twenty thousand scudi, the price of the work," replied Meschini
with alarming bluntness.
"Twenty thousand scudi!" cried the prince. "I remember that there
was some mention of a sum--two thousand, I think I said. Even that
is enormous, but I was carried away in the excitement of the
moment. We are all liable to such weakness--"
"You agreed to pay me twenty thousand scudi in cash on the day
that the verdict was given in favour of your son-in-law.
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