Let that consideration reconcile you to the scheme."

I could not but smile at this argument. I well knew that my brother's
rapacity was not to be satisfied with millions. To sit down and say, "I
have enough," was utterly incompatible with his character. I dropped the
conversation for the present.

My thoughts were full of uneasiness. The mere sound of the word
"project" alarmed me. I had little desire of knowing the exact nature of
the scheme, being nowise qualified to judge of its practicability; but a
scheme in which my brother was the agent, in which my father's whole
property was hazarded, and which appeared, from the account I had just
heard, at least not to have fulfilled the first expectations, could not be
regarded with tranquillity.

I took occasion to renew the subject with my father, some time after
this. I could only deal in general observations on the imprudence of
putting independence and subsistence to hazard: though the past was not to
be recalled, yet the future was his own, and it would not be unworthy of
him to act with caution. I was obliged to mingle this advice with much
foreign matter, and convey it in the most indirect and gentle terms. His
pride was easily offended at being thought to want the counsel of a
girl.

He replied to my remarks with confidence, that no further demand would
be made upon him. The last sum was given with extreme reluctance, and
nothing but the positive assurance that it would absolutely be the last
had prevailed with him.

"Suppose, sir," said I, "what you have already given should prove