United States or Brunei ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Before the muzzle of his gun stood a trembling man Theodor Krisstyan. His discharged pistol was still in his hand, he held it now as a protection to his head, and shook so that every limb quivered. "It is you you!" cried Michael.
"Krisstyan was a grain dealer without having ever learned regular business, but was like the speculators in a small way, who catch hold of a rope behind the great wholesale dealers, and go blindly in their wake. If the speculation succeeds, well and good; if not, they are ruined. As he always won, he thought there was nothing easier than mercantile transactions.
"And you can look on these shots just as you like. If they were the attack of an assassin, you have every reason not to approach me in any region within reach of the law; but if they were the shots of an insulted gentleman, you know that at our next meeting it is my turn to shoot." Theodor Krisstyan bared his breast, and exclaimed passionately, "Shoot me if ever I come in sight of you again!
"Krisstyan!" said Timar, very low. "Yes, to be sure; your dear Theodor your dear adopted son, Theodor Krisstyan! How good of you to recognize me!" "What do you want?" "First, I want to have that gun in my own hands, lest it should remind you of the words with which we parted last time 'If I ever appear before you again, shoot me down. Since then I have changed my mind."
The whole enterprise was in Scaramelli's name; Timar had his reasons for keeping his own name out of it; and he only communicated in writing with the fully empowered firm of Scaramelli. One day he received a letter from Theodor Krisstyan. When he opened it he was surprised to find money in it a hundred gulden note. The contents of the letter ran thus
We were not rich, but well off; he had his post, a pretty house, and a splendid orchard and meadow. I was an orphan when we married, and brought him some money; we were able to live respectably. "My husband had a friend, Maxim Krisstyan, of whom he was very fond. The man who has just been here is his son, who was then thirteen, a dear, handsome, clever boy.
"And now, my dear lady, I will tell you what I have come about." Therese looked at him with anxious distrust. "Now I will make you all happy you, as well as Noémi and myself. And besides, I can do Signor Scaramelli a good turn. That's enough for me. Says Scaramelli to me one day, 'Friend Krisstyan, I say, you will have to go off to Brazil." "If only you were there now!" sighed Therese.
"First, a respectable suit, for what I am wearing bears signs of the severity of the weather." Timar went to the closet, took out his pelisse trimmed with astrakhan, and the rest of the suit, laid them on the ground between himself and Krisstyan, and pointed to them in silence.
Word Of The Day