"
The baron burst out laughing.
"Don't laugh, for so it really is. That need cause _you_ no anxiety,
however, I only ask you to tell nobody, especially my husband. He would
be capable of making an end of me if he knew it."
"But seriously, countess, who could ever have lent you 40,000 florins?"
"Nobody, and yet I am indebted to that amount. You must know that once
upon a time, many years ago, when we lived at Vienna, I was given to
card playing. We played for high stakes in those days. One evening not
only did I lose all my cash, but had to give I.O.U.'s for 1,000 florins
besides. Debts contracted at play cannot remain unpaid for more than a
couple of days. It was absolutely indispensable that I should procure
these thousand florins somehow. I would not ask my husband for them and
that was very foolish of me. I got the amount at last from a wretched
usurer at an enormous rate of interest. When the amount plus interest
became due again, I was still more afraid to tell my husband, and so
kept on giving fresh bills, with the result that the amount of my
indebtedness grew and grew as the years rolled on, till it resembled the
egg of the widow in the nursery tale--out of which came first two cocks,
then a bristling boar, then a camel, and finally a carriage and four,
for at last my original poor little debt of one thousand florins swelled
into forty thousand and the usurers became importunate and would allow
me no more credit.
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