“Then that unscrupulous fellow repeated his speech.  ’Don’t you understand a joke?  Have you, then, no sense of fun?’ He would have struck us over the ear, and that the fellow called a joke!  And how the creature looked!  His face was like a drum-skin.  It was as though someone had wiped off the holy oil from this grimacing mask with a butcher’s sponge.  Yes, here you see how people become rich; how they get hold of other people’s property.  Conscience hunts the scoundrel to the deuce:  he lets his skin grow thick; feigns outwardly to be dull; if anyone spits in his face he regards it only as a May-shower; if anyone goes for him for his rascality, he takes it as a joke.  And so the rascals become rich!  One must be born to those things, that’s the way I see it.

“If you knew all that we said to this scoundrel’s face!  We all but seized him by the collar and threw him out the gate.  We belabored him well, but the fellow stood as if dumb, remained silent, and laughed in our faces as if we had been speaking to each other and not to him.  He neither took the watch out of his pocket nor the ring from his finger.  Finally, I thought to myself, ’I will wait a little and see what will happen.’

“And do you know what this bad fellow said to our Sarkis after a short silence?  ’Your watch and ring please me well, old fellow.  Let me take them for a month or two.  I will send them to Moscow and have some like them made for myself.  As soon as I get them back I will give them back to you unhurt.’

“Our stupid Sarkis dared not say no, and he had his way.

“‘Take them,’ said Sarkis, ’but take care that they do not go astray, for—­’

“‘But what are you thinking about?’ answered the scoundrel.  ’Am I then—.  Where do you buy your calico?’ the scoundrel began after a pause.  ’How much do you pay an ell?  Where do you buy your linen cloth?  How high does it come by the ell?  Where do you buy your silk and satin?’

“Heaven knows what all he prated about, and Sarkis answered him and told everything just as it really was.

“‘We buy our manufactured goods of Yellow Pogos,’ and told the prices of everything without reserve.

“‘Have you lost your wits, man?’ cried Hemorrhoid Jack.  ’Can any man in his full senses buy anything of Yellow Pogos?  Don’t you know that he is a swindler?  Why don’t you buy your goods of me?  I will give them to you cheaper by half,’

“To this Sarkis answered, ’When I need something again I will buy it of you.’

“I knew well enough that Sarkis needed nothing at the time, and that he said this only to get rid of the fellow.  But Jack did not or would not understand, and began again.

“‘No, do not put it that way,’ he said.  ’Come to-morrow and pick out what pleases you.  Do not think for a minute that I wish to make money out of you.  Let the goods lie in your closet, for, between ourselves, goods were very cheap in Moscow this year, and I cleverly threw out my line and bought everything at half price.  This year is a lucky one for my customers.  If one of them will let his goods lie a little while he will certainly double his money on them.  Yes, buy, I tell you, but not by the ell.  Buy by the piece and you will not regret it, I assure you.  I will send you in the morning five or six different kinds of goods.’