I did not hear the beginning of it: it was the early middle part which I came in for; it was conducted loudly and with gestures upon the part of the Andorran, good-humouredly but equally openly on the part of the Englishman, who said:
"I grant you that life is very hard for some of our town dwellers in spite of the high wages they obtain."
To which the Andorran answered: "There is nothing to grant, your Grace, for I would not believe their life was hard; but I was puzzled by what you told me, for I could not make out how they earned so much money, and yet looked so extraordinary." The Andorran showed by this that he had visited England.
At this the Englishman smiled pleasantly enough and said: "Do you think me extraordinary?"
The Andorran was a little embarrassed. "No no," he said, "you do not understand the word I use. I do not mean extraordinary to see, I mean unhappy and lacking humanity."
The Englishman smiled more genially still in his good wholesome beard, and said: "Do I look to you like that?"
"No," said the Andorran gravely, "nor does that gentleman whom you pointed out to me when we left France, your English patron, Mr. Bernstein I think ... you were both well-fed and well-clothed ... and what is more, I know nothing of what you earn. But in Andorra we ask about this man and that man indifferently, and especially about the poorest, and when I asked you about the poorest in your towns you told me that there was not one of them who did not earn, when he was fully working, twenty-five pesetas a week. Now with twenty-five pesetas a week! Oh ...! Why, I could live on five, and five weeks of twenty saved is a hundred pesetas; and with a hundred pesetas ...! Oh, one can buy a great brood sow; or if one is minded for grandeur, the best coat in the world; or again, a little mule just foaled, which in two years, mind you, in two years" (and here he wagged his finger) "will be a great fine beast" (and here he extended his arms), "and the next year will carry a man over the hills and will sell for five hundred pesetas. Yes it will!"
The Englishman looked puzzled. "Well," said he, leaning forward, ticking off on his fingers and becoming practical, "there's your pound a week."
The Andorran nodded. He began ticking it off on his fingers also.
"Now of course the man is not always in work."