My intention is to buy back the estate of La Bastie, and to entail it, so as to establish an estate yielding at least a hundred thousand francs a year, and then to ask the king to grant that one of my sons-in-law may succeed to my name and title.

You know, my poor Dumay, what a terrible misfortune overtook us through the fatal reputation of a large fortune,--my daughter's honor was lost.

I have therefore resolved that the amount of my present fortune shall not be known.

I shall not disembark at Havre, but at Marseilles.

I shall sell my indigo, and negotiate for the purchase of La Bastie through the house of Mongenod in Paris.