Farry, Breilmann, & Co. built me a very comfortable
travelling-carriage, which they have not yet delivered; persuade
them to keep it and not ask for any payment on it. If they refuse,
do what you can in the matter, and avoid everything that might
seem dishonorable in me under my present circumstances. I owe the
British Islander six louis, which I lost at cards; don't fail to
pay him--
"Dear cousin!" whispered Eugenie, throwing down the letter and running
softly back to her room, carrying one of the lighted candles. A thrill
of pleasure passed over her as she opened the drawer of an old oak
cabinet, a fine specimen of the period called the Renaissance, on
which could still be seen, partly effaced, the famous royal
salamander. She took from the drawer a large purse of red velvet with
gold tassels, edged with a tarnished fringe of gold wire,--a relic
inherited from her grandmother. She weighed it proudly in her hand,
and began with delight to count over the forgotten items of her little
hoard. First she took out twenty _portugaises_, still new, struck in
the reign of John V., 1725, worth by exchange, as her father told her,
five _lisbonnines_, or a hundred and sixty-eight francs, sixty-four
centimes each; their conventional value, however, was a hundred and
eighty francs apiece, on account of the rarity and beauty of the
coins, which shone like little suns. Item, five _genovines_, or five
hundred-franc pieces of Genoa; another very rare coin worth
eighty-seven francs on exchange, but a hundred francs to collectors.
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