‘Is what I have already told you, and I cannot alter it one penny.’
‘It is out of reason, and on that account, much as I would wish to profit by your judgment, I shall be compelled to forego it.’
‘Ah!’ snarled Cestus.
‘And truly,’ continued Afer, ‘the sum required is so large, that I doubt whether my slave’s purse contains sufficient to discharge the debt, even supposing I think right to incur it.’
‘Pah!’ was the muttered commentary of the Suburan, given with fathomless contempt, ‘the liar! He knows to a farthing what the fellow’s pouch has in it—nothing beyond a few copper coins, I’ll warrant; and woe betide him if he can’t square his reckoning when he gets home.’
‘In that case, I suppose, I should be right in saying that such a poor wretch as myself could never hope for credit,’ continued Afer, with a sneer.
‘You are a perfect stranger, sir,’ replied Neæra.
‘Exactly—with no recommendation. I shall, therefore, be compelled to select something more in keeping with my humble resources of ready coin, which, I am afraid, will be an impossible task, if prices are all levied at the same modest computation.’
‘This, then, perhaps you may approve of,’ said Neæra [pg 251]promptly; and going to the opposite end of the shop, she took and handed to him a small brown vessel, two or three inches high, without any more pretension to beauty than any ordinary glass bottle.
‘Ah, now you have hit my taste exactly,’ exclaimed Afer, receiving the plainest of plain articles in his hand with the blandest smile of exquisite irony; ‘you have indeed gauged my ideas to a nicety. The other articles were really as much beyond my artistic appreciation as their cost was above my poor purse; but this is delightful in its beautiful simplicity—I wait to hear you name its price.’