having dried his eyes, says:

"So far our prayers have been answered. Put me in mind, friend Peter,
that to-night we pray these worthy men prosper in their design."

"If they succeed," says Don Sanchez, "it will cost your mistress
five-and-thirty thousand pounds."

The steward clutched at the table as if at the fortune about to turn
from him; his jaw fell, and he stared at Don Sanchez in bewilderment,
then getting the face to speak, he gasps out, "Thirty-five thousand
pounds!" and still in a maze asks: "Art thou in thy right senses,
friend?"

The Don hunches his shoulders and turns to me. Whereupon I lay forth in
pretty much the same words as Mr. Hopkins used, the risk of the venture,
etc., to all which this Simon listened with starting eyes and gaping
mouth.

"Thirty-five thousand pounds!" he says again; "why, friend, 'tis half of
all I have made of the estate by a life of thrift and care and earnest
seeking."

"'Tis in your power, Simon," says Don Sanchez, "to spare your mistress
this terrible charge, for which your fine park must be felled, your
farms cut up, and your economies be scattered. The master here will
fetch your mistress home for fifteen hundred pounds."

"Why, even that is an extortion."