I draw upon him for 600,000 francs, my bills are returned unpaid, and, more than that, I hold bills of exchange signed by him to the value of 400,000 francs, payable at his correspondent's in paris at the end of this month. To-day is the 30th. I present them ; but my correspondent has disappeared. This, with my Spanish affairs, made a pretty end to the month." "Then you really lost by that affair in Spain?" "Yes; only 700,000 francs out of my cash-box-nothing more!" "Why, how could you make such a mistake-such an old stager?" "Oh, it is all my wife's fault. She dreamed Don Carlos had returned to Spain; she believes in dreams. It is magnetism, she says, and when she dreams a thing it is sure to happen, she assures me. On this conviction I allow her to speculate, she having her bank and her stockbroker; she speculated and lost. It is true she speculates with her own money, not mine; nevertheless, you can understand that when 700,000 francs leave the wife's pocket, the husband always finds it out. But do you mean to say you have not heard of this? Why, the thing has made a tremendous noise." "Yes, I heard it spoken of, but I did not know the details, and then no one can be more ignorant than I am of the affairs in the Bourse." "Then you do not speculate?" "I?-How could I speculate when I already have so much trouble in regulating my income? I should be obliged, besides my steward, to keep a clerk and a boy. But touching these Spanish affairs, I think that the baroness did not dream the whole of the Don Carlos matter. The papers said something about it, did they not?" "Then you believe the papers?" "I?-not the least in the world; only I fancied that the honest Messager was an exception to the rule, and that it only announced telegraphic despatches." "Well, that's what puzzles me," replied Danglars; "the news of the return of Don Carlos was brought by telegraph." "So that," said Monte Cristo, "you have lost nearly 1,700,000 francs this month." "Not nearly, indeed; that is exactly my loss." "Diable," said Monte Cristo compassionately, "it is a hard blow for a third-rate fortune." "Third-rate," said Danglars, rather humble, "what do you mean by that dermes vs medilase?" "Certainly," continued Monte Cristo, "I make three assortments in fortune-first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate fortunes. I call those first-rate which are composed of treasures one possesses under one's hand, such as mines, lands, and funded property, in such states as France, Austria, and England, provided these treasures and property form a total of about a hundred millions; I call those second-rate fortunes, that are gained by manufacturing enterprises, joint-stock companies, viceroyalties, and principalities, not drawing more than 1,500,000 francs, the whole forming a capital of about fifty millions; finally, I call those third-rate fortunes, which are composed of a fluctuating capital, dependent upon the will of others, or upon chances which a bankruptcy involves or a false telegram shakes, such as banks, speculations of the day-in fact, all operations under the influence of greater or less mischances, the whole bringing in a real or fictitious capital of about fifteen millions. I think this is about your position, is it not?" "Confound it, yes!" replied Danglars. "The result, then, of six more such months as this would be to reduce the third-rate house to despair." "Oh," said Danglars, becoming very pale, how you are running on dermes vs medilase!"