The art editors seemed to be in the same unhappy condition as the dealers. 'Overstocked!' was their cry.
The picture would be at the dealer's, possibly--one must not be too sanguine--thrust away in some odd corner.
Every dealer had the same remark to make--to wit, no room.
At length, early one morning, while Khacan was on his way to the king's palace, a dealer, throwing himself in his way, announced eagerly that a Persian merchant, arrived late the previous evening, had a slave to sell whose wit and wisdom were equal to her incomparable beauty.
The dealer appearing at the appointed hour, Khacan found the slave beautiful beyond his expectations, and immediately gave her the name of "The Fair Persian."
Being a man of great wisdom and learning, he perceived in the short conversation he had with her that he would seek in vain another slave to surpass her in any of the qualities required by the king, and therefore asked the dealer what price the merchant put upon her.
Khacan, who was better able to judge of her merits than the dealer, wishing to bring the matter to a conclusion, sent for the merchant, and said to him, "It is not for myself that I wish to buy your slave, but for the king.
"The same
dealer heard of me, and said he thought he knew one place where I should do well.
As soon as she was gone Sancho said to the cattle dealer, whose tears were already starting and whose eyes and heart were following his purse, "Good fellow, go after that woman and take the purse from her, by force even, and come back with it here;" and he did not say it to one who was a fool or deaf, for the man was off like a flash of lightning, and ran to do as he was bid.
If the previous decision about the cattle dealer's purse excited the admiration of the bystanders, this provoked their laughter; however, the governor's orders were after all executed.
The
dealer saluted, horseman-fashion, with a sweep of the off hand.
"'Say,' he whispers, 'I seen the
dealer deal hisself four aces.'
The Reverend said it had transpired during the interview that "Cholley" Adams's father was an extensive
dealer in horses in western New York; this accounted for Cholley's choice of a profession.
I could not defer my pleasure, so I took a cabriolet and drove to the horse
dealer's.
He was with him in the City when he took his poor pension about from
dealer to
dealer trying to sell it.
