Without reckoning my account, what is the amount of your debts?

De la Brive
A mere trifle! A hundred and fifty thousand francs, which my father-
in-law will cut down to fifty thousand. I shall have a hundred
thousand francs left to begin life on. I always said that I should
never become rich until I hadn't a sou left.

Mericourt
Mercadet is an astute man; he will question you about your fortune;
are you prepared?

De la Brive
Am I not the landed proprietor of La Brive? Three thousand acres in
the Landes, which are worth thirty thousand francs, mortgaged for
forty-five thousand and capable of being floated by a stock jobbing
company for some commercial purpose or other, say, as representing a
capital of a hundred thousand crowns! You cannot imagine how much this
property has brought me in.

Mericourt
Your name, your horse, and your lands seem to me to be on their last
legs.

De la Brive
Not so loud!

Mericourt
So you have quite made up your mind?