der at them.

At the "Mono" (the "Ape"), a beast which at first _I_ mistook for a
certain historical character to whom popular prejudice always vouchsafes
a tail, I put up, and having discussed a very sumptuous breakfast, sent
for the landlord, a little dark-visaged Jew from Pernambuco.

"I hear," said I, arranging myself in an attitude of imposing elegance,
"I hear, Senhor Maestro, that my people and equipages have not arrived
yet, and I begin to feel a great anxiety for their safety. Can you learn
from any of the Muleros if they have seen two carriages, with four mules
each, on the Chihuahua road?"

"I have just inquired," said the Jew, with a sly, almost impertinent
leer, "and his Excellency's suite have not been seen."

"How provoking!" said I, impatiently. "This comes of indulging that
capricious taste for adventure which always inclines me to a solitary
ramble among mountains. And now, here I am, without clothes, baggage,
horses, servants,--in fact, with nothing that a person of my condition
is accustomed to have about him."

The Jew's face changed its expression during this speech, and, from a
look of droll malice which it wore at first, assumed an air of almost
open insolence as he said,--

"Senhor Viajador, I am too old to be imposed upon by these fooleries.
The traveller who enters an inn on his feet, with ragged clothes and
tattered shoes, takes too high a flight when he raves of equipage and
followers."

I bethought me of the lesson I once gave the mate of the transport ship
at Quebec, and I lay back indolently in my chair and stared coolly at
the Jew. "Son of Abraham," said I, with a slow intonation, "take care
what you say. I indulge in a vast variety of caprices, some of which
the severe world calls follies; but there is one which I never permit
myself,--namely, to suffer the slightest liberty on the part of an
inferior. I give you this piece of information for your guidance, since
it is possible that business with the banker Don Manuel Hijaros may
detain me a few days in this place, and I desire that the lesson be not
lost upon you."

The Jew stood, while I delivered these words, a perfect ideal of doubt
and embarrassment. The pretentious tone, contrasted with the ragged
apparel, the air of insufferable pride, with all the semblance of
poverty, and the calm composure of confidence, seemed to him singular
features in one whose apparent destitution might have suggested
humility.

"I see your em