1If your father had owed money to several creditors, or to any single person other than me, you might perhaps have had to hesitate whether to take up an inheritance that would burden even a man. 2But since I, led by the duty owed to a relative by marriage, after all those were paid off who were, I will not say more troublesome, but more exacting, have been left as sole creditor, and since, while he was alive, I contributed a hundred thousand sesterces to your dowry when you married, besides the sum which your father promised as if from my funds – for it was to be paid from my funds –, you have a great pledge of my indulgence, and trusting in it you ought to take upon yourself the good name and honour of the dead man.
2And so that I may not urge you to this with words more than with deeds, I shall have whatever your father owed me credited to you as paid. 3Nor is there any reason for you to fear that this gift may be a burden to me. 3It is true that my means are altogether modest, my position costly, and my income, because of the nature of my little farms, I know not whether smaller or more uncertain; 3but what is lacking from income is made up by thrift, from which, as from a spring, my generosity flows. 4This, however, must be so regulated that it does not run dry through too lavish an outpouring; 4but it must be regulated in the case of others; in yours its account will easily balance, even if it has gone beyond the limit.
4Farewell.