re without
commerce; and 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 would
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 woke
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 of the ho