“I showed a strong indifference and told him that I was used to the rubs of this sad world and that my trust was in Allah!
“At last, as the day when his funds would be exhausted was at hand, I gave a feast of special importance to the treasurer and the chief magistrates of the city, and there led the talk on to the works still continuing. I heard the usual grumble that the sum originally advanced out of the taxes was sunk in a morass, that the young man had, apparently, funds of his own for continuing the nonsense and that yet the city could recover nothing from him. I approved a threat that, out of sheer annoyance, they might stop the whole thing and put him in gaol till he should pay, or at any rate suffer for, his unsettled debt to his fellow-townsmen.
“Then it was that I struck, for the hour was ripe! I pleaded for him as a friend. I let them feel my influence, I waited for the suggestion—and I was not disappointed. The treasurer after a little solemn hesitation said to me: ‘Sir, since you know this young fellow and seem to be in his councils, can you not discover what remains to him and perhaps make him reimburse the gold pieces he owes to our town-fund? We should be beholden to you.’ I answered that my intimacy with the Enthusiast hardly went so far, but that I would do my best. Only I begged them for the interval of a week.
“The day after the morrow of that feast the Young Man came to me in an excessive perturbation. The mud of his travail was still on his hands, and I was concerned to see him limping from the effect (as he told me) of a heavy barrow which had overset as he wheeled it and crushed his big toe. But he neglected the pain in his extreme mental distress and told me that, having paid that week’s wages, his gold pieces were now reduced to ten. Even if he himself ate but dry bread in the next few days and sold his poor belongings he could not meet the next account, which was but seven days distant.
“I cast my eyes on the ground and delayed a while, the more to impress him. I then told him in grave and subdued tones that I had very bad news. I glanced up a moment to note the wildness in his eyes upon this blow, then cast them down at the ground and continued: ‘I have private advice—perhaps I should not have divulged it to you, for it was given in confidence, but my concern and affection for you have proved too strong—I have private advice that the council intend this very week to demand most formally the repayment of 100 pieces of gold which they say is due from you for advances long ago made, and failing payment to cast you into their dungeon.’
“The Young Man leapt suddenly to his feet, gave a loud shriek, and made to beat his head against the wall. It was with difficulty that I held his hands and restrained him.
“‘Oh! Curse my birth!’ he cried in a paroxysm of despair. ‘And curse my generation! My day has come!’ He raved. He incoherently demanded miracles and alternately denied the Justice of Allah! Grown more subdued but still distraught, he moaned of his affections. He told me—what I had hitherto not known and what interested me very little—that he had a little sister, orphaned as he was, who, if he were put away, would starve or become the prey of strangers. ‘What could be done? What refuge discovered? Curse the day when his fatal dream had struck him! Curse his works! Curse the river! Curse the marsh! Curse the city!’
“And so on—the usual reaction of enthusiasts. It was most distressing. I still held his writhing hands firmly till he was calm enough to hear me, and then said:
“‘Listen to me. I have considered your case. I think I can rescue you. I have myself saved a little from my trading operations of the last two months in this town. My credit also is somewhat extended. I will find what you need. For I respect genius and I do not judge by common standards——’
“I was proceeding when he burst out into extravagant gratitude; called me his benefactor, kissed my hand again and again, and irrelevantly alluded again to that little sister of his who really had nothing to do with the case. I checked him and continued: