But young as I was, I was too old for that too; and told him, I could not tell positively how many I should take, but that I would come in the afternoon, and taste them again, and mark out what I wanted.  He seemed uneasy at that, and pretended he had two merchants waiting to see them, and he could sell them immediately, and I might do him a prejudice if I made him wait and put them off, who perhaps might buy in the mean time.

I answered him coldly, I would not hinder him selling them by any means if he could have a better chapman, that I could not come sooner, and that I would not be obliged to take the whole parcel, nor would I buy any of them without tasting them again:  he argued much to have me buy them, seeing, as he said, I had tasted them before, and liked them very well.

‘I did so,’ said I, ’but I love to have my palate confirm one day what it approved the day before.’  ‘Perhaps,’ says he, ’you would have some other person’s judgment of them, and you are welcome to do so, sir, with all my heart; send any body you please:’  but still he urged for a bargain, when the person sent should make his report; and then he had his agents ready, I understood afterwards, to manage the persons I should send.

I answered him frankly, I had no great judgment, but that, such as it was, I ventured to trust to it; I thought I had honest men to deal with, and that I should bring nobody to taste them for me but myself.

This pleased him, and was what he secretly wished; and now, instead of desiring me to come immediately, he told me, that seeing I would not buy without seeing the goods again, and would not go just then, he could not be in the way in the afternoon, and so desired I would defer it till next morning, which I readily agreed to.

In the morning I went, but not so soon as I had appointed; upon which, when I came, he seemed offended, and said I had hindered him—­that he could have sold the whole parcel, &c.  I told him I could not have hindered him, for that I had told him he should not wait for me, but sell them to the first good customer he found.  He told me he had indeed sold two or three casks, but he would not disoblige me so much as to sell the whole parcel before I came.  This I mention, because he made it a kind of a bite upon me, that I should not be alarmed at seeing the casks displaced in the cellar.

When I came to taste the brandy, I began to be surprised.  I saw the very same casks which I had touched with the marking-iron when I was there before, but I did not like the brandy by any means, but did not yet suspect the least foul play.

I went round the whole cellar, and I could not mark above three casks which I durst venture to buy; the rest apparently showed themselves to be mixed, at least I thought so.  I marked out the three casks, and told him my palate had deceived me, that the rest of the brandy was not for my turn.