"Fox!" retorted Gregorios. "Do you think when I buy tapestry I want to buy holes?"
"But this piece has none," argued the Jew.
"You want me to buy it. I can see you do. You are laughing at my beard. You think I will give a thousand pounds for your rubbish?"
"Not a thousand pounds," said Marchetto. "It is worth a hundred and fifty pounds, neither more nor less. Marchetto is an honest man. He is not a Persian fox."
"No," answered Balsamides, "he is an Israelite of Saloniki. What have I to do with such a fellow as you, who have the impudence to ask a hundred and fifty liras for that rag?"
"How shall the lion and the lamb lie down together?" inquired Marchetto. "And is it a rag?"
"I will tell you, Marchetto," said Gregorios, gravely. "The lion and the lamb shall lie down together, when the lion lies down with the lamb inside of him."
"Take, and eat!" exclaimed the ready Jew, holding out the Rhodes tapestry to Balsamides.
"A man who has fasted throughout Ramazán shall not break his fast with an onion," retorted Gregorios, laughing.
"Who eats little earns much," replied Marchetto. "Is it not the most beautiful piece of Rhodes you ever saw, Effendim? There is not a Pasha in Stamboul, nor in Pera, nor in Scutari, who possesses the like of it. Only a hundred and fifty pounds; it is very cheap."