“A friend might have it for ten thousand,” said I, calmly; “to the world at large the price would be twelve.”
“Ah, your Excellency, such sums rest not in our humble city! You must go to Madrid or Grenada for wealth like that.”
“So I suspect,” said I, coolly. “I will content myself with depositing them with my banker for the present; to sell them here would be a needless sacrifice of them.”
“And yet, Señhor, I would willingly be the purchaser of that gem,” said he, as he stood, fascinated by the lustre of the stone, from which he could not take his eyes. “If six thousand five hundred piastres—”
“I have said ten to a friend, my honest Israelite,” interrupted I.
“I am but a poor man, your Excellency,—a poor struggling, hard-working man,—content if he but gain the humblest profit by his labor; say, then, seven thousand piastres, and I will sell my mules to make up the amount.”
“I will say twelve, and not a doubloon less,” Señhor Judio; “but a friend may have it for ten.”
“Ah, if your 'Alteza' would but say eight! Eight thousand piastres counted down upon the table in honest silver,” said he; and the tears stood in his eyes as he supplicated.
“Be it so,” said I, “but upon one condition. Should you ever reveal this, or should you speak of the transaction in any way, there is no manner of evil and mischief I will not work you. If it cost me half my fortune, I will be your ruin; for I refused to part with that same to the Primate of Seville, and he would never forgive me if the story should reach his ears.”
The Jew wished the Patriarchs to witness his oath of secrecy; and though each of us was well aware that the other was lying, somehow we seemed satisfied by the exchange of our false coinage. I suppose we acted on the same principle as the thieves who could not keep their hands out of each other's pockets, although they knew well there was nothing there.