"One of the female cousins," he said, "is a warm widow, who has a fat fortune from her husband, and the other is a budding muse, who ought to be satisfied with ambrosia. What a pity, that I am not the sole relative of the deceased!"
Here he addressed Ladislaus:
"The Krzyckis, I think, need not be considered, because you have had, as I heard, a dispute about the Rzeslewo boundary. I hope that you will not get anything."
"What is the use of your hoping?" said Gronski. "Limit, above all things, your wants."
"You remind me of my lamented father," answered Dolhanski.
"He certainly must have repeated that to you often."
"Too often, and besides, he set himself up as an example, but I demonstrated to him, as plainly as two times two are four, that I could and ought to live on a higher scale than he."
"What did you tell him?"
"I spoke to him thus: Firstly, Papa has a son, while I am childless, and again, I am a better noble than he."
"In what respect?"