and the sad disparity existing between the great display by which his
father and mother, as well as his grandmother, the countess, maintained
the appearance of their former princely wealth, and the balances of the
last few years.

When he had just boasted to the reckless young knight that he had given
up gaming, he told but half the truth, for though since his period of
study in Venice, and later in Milan, he had not touched dice, he had been
forced to consent to a series of enterprises undertaken by his father,
whose stakes were far different from the gambling of the knights and
nobles at the Green Shield or in the camp.

Yet he intended to bind the fate of the woman he loved to his own, for
Els, spite of the opposition of his family, would have been already
indissolubly united to him, had not one failure after another destroyed
his courage to take her hand. Finally, he deemed it advisable to await
the result of the last great enterprise, now on the eve of decision. It
might compensate for many of the losses of recent years. Should it be
favourable, the heaviest burden would be lifted from his soul; in the
opposite case the old house would be shaken to its foundations. Yet
even its fall would have been easier for him to endure than this cruel
uncertainty, to which was added the torturing anxiety of bearing the
responsibility of things for which he was not to blame, and of which,
moreover, he was even denied a clear view. Yet he felt absolutely
certain that his father was concealing many things, perhaps the worst,
and often felt as if he were walking in the darkness over a mouldering
bridge. Ah, if it could only be propped up, and then rebuilt! But if it
must give way, he hoped the catastrophe would come soon. He knew that he
possessed the strength to build a new home for Els and himself. Even
were it small and modest, it should be erected on a firm foundation and