ether, Lavengro was now able to
identify him with the "man in black." Subsequently he heard of the
efforts of the same clever dialectician to overcome the Methodist
preacher Peter Williams--efforts which collapsed upon the appearance of
the preacher's wife Winifred. "Wife, wife," muttered the disconcerted
priest, "if the fool has a wife he will never do for us." In the course
of his wanderings this nineteenth-century S. Augustine often gave himself
out to be a teacher of elocution.

{117} The man in black was completely mystified by the knowledge of his
own past life which this remark revealed (see Chap. IX. _infra_.). There
were, as have been seen, a variety of threads connecting the man in black
with definite scenes in the memory of Lavengro, though the latter did not
happen to have seen the "prowling priest" in the flesh before this
occasion. While in London Lavengro frequently met a certain Armenian
merchant, who much resented the pretensions of the Roman Papa: that he,
the Papa, had more to say in heaven than the Armenian patriarch, and that
the hillocks of Rome were higher than the ridges of Ararat. "The Papa of
Rome," said the Armenian to Lavengro, "has at present many emissaries in
this country, in order to seduce the people from their own quiet religion
to the savage heresy of Rome; this fellow" (describing the man in black)
"came to me partly in the hope of converting me, but principally to
extort money for the purpose of furthering the designs of Rome in this
country. I humoured the fellow at first, keeping him in play for nearly
a month, deceiving and laughing at him. At last he discovered that he
could make nothing of me, and departed with the scowl of Caiaphas, whilst
I cried after him, 'The roots of Ararat are _deeper_ than those of
Rome.'"

This same Armenian subsequently offered Lavengro a desk in his office
opposite his deaf Moldavian clerk, having surmised that he would make an
excellent merchant because he squinted like a true Armenian. Unhappily
for the Flaming Tinman and for Isopel Berners, the word-master refused
this singular offer.

{118} A passado at Belle's avowed weakness for that beverage.

{125a} _A strange listens_.

{125b} _Up yonder_.

{153} The Catholic controversy was just at its height in 1825, and the
Catholic Emancipation Bill received the Royal Assent in April 1829.

{156} The doctrine of economy in a nutshell.

{159} For Borrow's final verdict on Sir Walte