“That is precisely what I said at the beginning,” observed Orsino with a shade of irritation.

“Yes.  But I like to reach my conclusions in my own way.  You are then a young man in search of an occupation.  Speculation, and what you propose is nothing else, is no more an occupation than playing at the public lottery and much less one than playing at baccarat.  There at least you are responsible for your own mistakes and in decent society you are safe from the machinations of dishonest people.  That would matter less if the chances were in your favour, as they might have been a year ago and as they were in mine from the beginning.  They are against you now, because it is too late, and they are against me.  I would as soon buy a piece of land on credit at the present moment, as give the whole sum in cash to the first man I met in the street.”

“Yet there is Montevarchi who still buys—­”

“Montevarchi is not worth the paper on which he signs his name,” said San Giacinto calmly.

Orsino uttered an exclamation of surprise and incredulity.

“You may tell him so, if you please,” answered the giant with perfect indifference.  “If you tell any one what I have said, please to tell him first, that is all.  He will not believe you.  But in six months he will know it, I fancy, as well as I know it now.  He might have doubled his fortune, but he was and is totally ignorant of business.  He thought it enough to invest all he could lay hands on and that the returns would be sure.  He has invested forty millions and owns property which he believes to be worth sixty, but which will not bring ten in six months, and those remaining ten millions he owes on all manner of paper, on mortgages on his original property, in a dozen ways which he has forgotten himself.”

“I do not see how that is possible!” exclaimed Orsino.

“I am a plain man, Orsino, and I am your cousin.  You may take it for granted that I am right.  Do not forget that I was brought up in a hand-to-hand struggle for fortune such as you cannot dream of.  When I was your age I was a practical man of business, and I had taught myself, and it was all on such a small scale that a mistake of a hundred francs made the difference between profit and loss.  I dislike details, but I have been a man of detail all my life, by force of circumstances.  Successful business implies the comprehension of details.  It is tedious work, and if you mean to try it you must begin at the beginning.  You ought to do so.  There is an enormous business before you, with considerable capabilities in it.  If I were in your place, I would take what fell naturally to my lot.”

“What is that?”