“En mynheer wil niet ontbijten?” she rejoined. This was the biting again, so I said decidedly, “Neen; niet bijte”. She seemed surprised and a little hurt, but she said nothing and went away. And of course I had to fast until five o’clock.
This would never do, I felt; and that evening I bought the first grammar and dictionary I could lay my hands on at a second-hand bookstall in the Binnenhof.
THE PURCHASE OF THE BOOKS.
They were antique looking volumes, most of them there; and my books had a remarkably ancient aspect. But I was glad to find that I had completed the purchase of them without using one word of English. How? Oh, the method’s very simple. You pick out some big book you don’t want, and hold it up interrogatively.
You can hold up a book interrogatively, you know, with a little practice. Well, you lift some rubbishy, bulky volume that you wouldn’t be paid to put in your library, and you give it a sort of enquiring wave in front of the vendor of these second-hand goods, and the vendor immediately understands your picturesque query to be “How much?” He answers promptly, and you as promptly drop the rubbishy fat volume, as if it was a scorpion: you sigh resignedly, raise your eyebrows and walk away disgusted.
That is the first step. That is to give him respect for your intelligence and to indicate your willingness to negociate on reasonable terms.
The next step is different. You linger with an air of disdain at the tail-end of the bookstall; and, as an after-thought—just as you are moving off—you halt a moment and flick the particular work you do happen to want, with a careless forefinger or the point of your walking-stick. At once the man talks, and you say “Nee”.
THE PURCHASE OF THE BOOKS.
He talks more. You say, “Neen, neen” and shake your head sadly. He talks still more, and gesticulates excitedly with the book in his hand. You wait till he stops for breath, then suddenly interject, “Ja; best,” taking care to put down a large silver coin,—and the article is yours! The negotiation is over; and all you have to do is to gather up your purchase and a quantity of small silver and copper coins that you get as change. Then with a little patience at home and some arithmetic you can count out—approximately—how much the things have cost you. That’s the way you buy second-hand books.”
“I had no idea, Jack, you had such a genius for diplomacy,” I murmured, as O’Neill evidently expected us to say something.