"What do ye both want here?" cries he, in a terrified voice.
Repa puts the ruble on the table, and answers,—
"Great, mighty lord secretary! I have come about the conscription."
"Out! out! out!" cries Zolzik, into whom courage enters in one instant. And falling into a rage he rises to spring at Repa; but at that moment his wound, received in the Carlist war, pains him so acutely that he drops again on the pillow, giving forth smothered groans.
"Oi! ye!"
CHAPTER III.
MEDITATIONS AND EUREKA.
THE wound became inflamed.
I see how my fair readers will begin to drop tears over my hero, and hence, before any of them faint, I will hasten to add, that my hero did not die of the wound. Long life was predestined to him. For that matter, if he had died, I should have broken my pen and stopped this story; but as he did not die I continue.