“Before the day when I first saw that river and that town, first met the enthusiastic young Engineer, first formed my decisive plan, I had been a man subject to grave anxieties and sufferings; now precariously affluent, now starving; now again doubtfully possessed of some fleeting money. Then came the marvellous year I have just recited. Since then I have enjoyed the results of so much persistence and skill. I have gathered and enjoyed without cease the fruits of great and increasing wealth.”
“Oh, uncle, what are these?”
“They are,” said the good old merchant in grave and reverent tones, “the honour of neighbours, the devotion of friends, the admiration of all mankind, a permanent self-respect, and—what is more important than them all—the Strong Peace of the Soul.”
The intolerable howl of the Muezzin checked his nephews’ reply, and they, their happy eyes shining as though they themselves were the recipients of these seven figures went home in a dream of gold.
AL-FULÚS AL-MASNÚ MIN AL-QIRTÁS
That is:
The Money Made of Paper