You can fancy, my lad, with what eagerness I acquiesced in his wish, and what care I devoted to my preparations. After selecting all my best tricks, I ransacked my brains to invent one worthy of my illustrious spectators. But I had no need to search long, for chance, that most ingenious of inventors, came to my aid.
On the day prior to the performance I was in the shop of one of the first watchmakers of Rome, when a servant came in to ask if his eminence the Cardinal de ——‘s watch was repaired.
“It will not be ready till this evening,” the watchmaker replied; “and I will do myself the honor of carrying it to your master myself.”
When the servant had retired, the tradesman said to me:
“This is a handsome and capital watch. The cardinal to whom it belongs values it at more than 10,000 fr.; for, as he ordered it himself of the celebrated Brèguet, he fancies it must be unique of its kind. Strangely enough, though, only two days ago, a young scamp belonging to this city offered me a precisely similar watch, made by the same artist for 1000 fr.”
While the watchmaker was talking to me, I had already formed a plan.
“Do you think,” I said to him, “that this person is still inclined to dispose of his watch?”
“Certainly,” the watchmaker replied. “This young prodigal, who has spent all his fortune, is now reduced to sell his family jewels: hence the 1000 fr. will be welcome.”
“Is he to be found?”
“Nothing easier: in a gambling-house he never quits.”