“Evident as it is to your enlightened understanding, Señhor Condé, you are, nevertheless, the first man I have ever found to take the right view of this transaction. It is a real pleasure to discuss a state question with a great man.”
Hereupon we both burst forth into an animated duet of compliments, in which, I am bound to confess, the Governor was the victor.
“And now, Señhor Condé,” said he, after a long volley of panegyric, “may we reckon upon your support in this affair?”
“You must understand, first of all, Excellenza,” replied I, “that I am not in any way an official personage. I am,”—here I smiled with a most fascinating air of mock humility,—“I am, so to speak, a humble—a very humble—individual, of unpretending rank and small fortune.”
“Ah, Señhor Condé,” sighed the Governor, for he had heard of my ingots from the banker.
“Being as I say,” resumed I, “my influence is naturally small. If I am listened to in a matter of political importance, I owe the courtesy rather to the memory of my family's services than to any insignificant merits I may possess. The cause of justice is, however, never weak, no matter how humble the means of him who asserts it. Such as I am, rely upon me.”
We embraced here, and the Governor shed a few official tears at the thought of so soon separating from one he regarded as more than his brother.
“We feel, Señhor Condé,” said he, “how inadequate any recognition of ours must be for services such as yours. We are a young country and a Republic; honors we have none to bestow,—wealth is already your own; we have nothing to offer, therefore, but our gratitude.”
“Be it so,” thought I; “the burden will not increase my luggage.”
“This box will remind you, however, of an interview, and recall one who deems this the happiest, as it is the proudest, hour of his life;” here he presented me with a splendid gold snuff-box containing a miniature of the President, surrounded by enormous diamonds.