ised, but he grasped the point of the transaction, and
seemed to regard it as a pleasant jest against him, and to respect us
the more for having outwitted him. The Princess apologized for having
made such bad terms for us, and meant it! I suspect that that was a very
fair sample of the comparative terms obtained by natives and outsiders
in all bargains.

It is one of those things at which one smiles or fumes, according to the
force of the instinct for justice with which he has been blessed--or
cursed--by nature. Nothing, unless it be a healthy, athletic
conscience, is so wofully destructive of all happiness and comfort in
this life as a keen sense of justice!

There are, it is true, persons in Russia who scorn to bargain as much as
did the girl of the merchant class in one of Ostrovsky's famous
comedies, who was so generous as to blush with shame for the people whom
she heard trying to beat down exorbitant prices in the shops, or whom
she saw taking their change. The merchant's motto is, "A thing is worth
all that can be got for it." Consequently, it never occurs to him that
even competition is a reason for being rational. One striking case of
this in my own experience was provided by a hardware merchant, in whose
shop I sought a spirit lamp. The lamps he showed me were not of the sort
I wished, and the price struck me as exorbitant, although I was not
informed as to that particular subject. I offered these suggestions to
the fat merchant in a mild manner, and added that I would look elsewhere
before deciding upon his wares.

"You will find none elsewhere," roared the merchant--previously soft
spoken as the proverbial sucking dove--through his bushy beard, in a
voice which would have done credit to the proto-deacon of a cathedral.
"And not one kopek will I abate of my just price, _yay Bogu!_ [God is my
witness!] They cost me that sum; I am actually making you a present of
them out of my profound respect for you, _sudarynya!_ [He had called me
Madame before that, but now he lowered my social rank to that of a
merchant's wife, out of revenge.] And you will be pleased not to come
back if you don't find a lamp to suit your peculiar taste, for I will
not sell to you. I won't have people coming here and looking at things
and then not buying!"

It was obviously my turn to retort, but I let the merchant have the last
word--temporarily. In ten minutes another shopkeeper offered me lamps
of identical quality and pattern at on