THE BURIED TREASURE. 253

his young master and the son-in-law that was to be
did not reassure him. The young spendthrift was
determined not to let his sister go portionless into
another family. He roundly accused his friend of
unwittingly desiring to do him a great injury. The
friend retorted that all the injury that he had suffered
had been done by himself. His father and his
grandfather’s exertions had laid an honourable career
open to him, and by his idleness and folly he had
lost the opportunity.

“T want,” said Lysiteles, “to leave you this farm
as something to begin with. As an utterly penniless
man you would have no chance of retrieving your
position.”

Lesbionicus had no hesitation in acknowledging ~
that he had been grievously to blame. “Only,” he
said, “what you want to do would send me down
from bad to worse. I should be poor, if I do as I
propose, but I should not be dishonourable. To let
my sister marry without a dowry would be to disgrace
her and myself; for you to take her would, indeed,
redound to your credit, but in exactly the same
degree it would be discreditable to me.”

“Redound to my credit!” cried Lysiteles, “it
would do nothing of the kind. I know what you are
going to do. The marriage once celebrated, you
mean to fly from your kinsfolk, friends, and country.
And what will people say of me? Why, that my
greed had driven you away.”