oor figure without commerce;
and then there is something poetical in the idea of doing business after
the Armenian fashion, dealing with dark-faced Lascars and Rabbins of the
Sephardim. Yes, should the Armenian insist upon it, I will accept a seat
at the desk, opposite the Moldavian clerk. I do not like the idea of
cuffs similar to those the Armenian bestowed upon the Moldavian clerk;
whatever merit there may be in patience, I do not think that my
estimation of the merit of patience would be sufficient to induce me to
remain quietly sitting under the infliction of cuffs. I think I should,
in the event of his cuffing me, knock the Armenian down. Well, I think I
have heard it said somewhere, that a knock-down blow is a great cementer
of friendship; I think I have heard of two people being better friends
than ever after the one had received from the other a knock-down blow."

That night I dreamed I had acquired a colossal fortune, some four hundred
thousand pounds, by the Armenian way of doing business, but suddenly
awoke in dreadful perplexity as to how I should dispose of it.

About nine o'clock next morning I set off to the house of the Armenian; I
had never called upon him so early before, and certainly never with a
heart beating with so much eagerness; but the situation of my affairs had
become very critical, and I thought that I ought to lose no time in
informing the Armenian that I was at length perfectly willing either to
translate the Haik Esop under his superintendence, or to accept a seat at
the desk opposite to the Moldavian clerk, and acquire the secrets of
Armenian commerce. With a quick step I entered the counting-room, where,
notwithstanding the earliness of the hour, I found the clerk, busied as
usual at his desk.

He had always appeared to me a singular being, this same Moldavian clerk.
A person of fewer words could scarcely be conceived: provided his master
were at home, he would, on my inquiring, nod his head; and, provided he
were not, he would invariably reply with the monosyllable, no, delivered
in a strange guttural tone. On the present occasion, being full of
eagerness and impatience, I was about to pass by him to the apartment
above, without my usual inquiry, when he lifted his head from the ledger
in which he was writing, and, laying down his pen, motioned to me with
his forefinger, as if to arrest my progress; whereupon I stopped, and,
with a palpitating heart, demanded whether the master