human
Farewell, Luis; we may meet again under happier auspices, when I return from the cruise on which I am now despatched, and you recover from the effects of your disappointment and reverse of fortune.
gpt
The mere loss of fortune I could, as far as I am individually concerned, have borne with fortitude, but that it casts a cloud over the last days of my father's life, and that it deprives me of the last chance of gaining Donna Clara.
human
But is your father's property so irretrievably involved, that you may not hope to recover it?
gpt
So Father Jacinto, my cousin, informs me, the mercantile house in which the whole of my father's monied property was placed having completely failed, and the estates being mortgaged to their full value.--No, alas! I see no chance of ever being able to recover what we have lost; and with me, I fear, our once high name must end.
human
Don't think of such a thing. When you least expect it, Fortune's wheel will turn up a prize, and you will find yourself prosperous and happy. You do not mean to become a friar, I hope? You were fitted for nobler aims than such a life can offer.
gpt
I must visit my father,--I fear it will be but to close his eyes,-- before I fix on my future course in life, though surely anything is preferable to hanging about the Court, a poverty-stricken noble, in greedy expectation of some paltry office, cringing meanly to those one despises, to obtain it, as is the fate of many, and would be mine also if I could submit to it; but that I never can. No, I would far rather sink my rank and name, and be forgotten by the world, than lead such a life.
human
You are right, Luis, anything is better than that contemptible hunting after place, in which so many men waste their energies; but you need not be reduced to that necessity,--the Minister will gladly give you employment whenever you ask for it, as he has already promised you, and he is not a man to forget his word.
gpt
That was when fortune appeared to smile on me, and I was not a suppliant for charity. You yourself have often told me that people are far more ready to bestow gifts on those who do not ask for them, than on those who are petitioners.
human
With people in general, such is the case, replied the Captain;