“‘I’ll take all I can get for nothing, and give as little as I can help in return. I’m a capitalist by temperament, but poor because I didn’t get a chance of exercising my talents,’ ses he.
“‘I suppose you wouldn’t say no to a glass of whiskey,’ ses I.
“‘I’d say no to nothing except a black eye,’ ses he.
“‘You couldn’t afford to have an eye blackened, when you have only one good eye already,’ ses I. And then and there I treated him to two glasses of whiskey, and when he had them swallowed, I up and ses: ‘How did you lose your lamp?’ meaning his eye, of course.
“‘In a duel with the King of Spain,’ ses he.
“‘Glory be to the Lord!’ ses I. ‘All over a woman, I presume?’
“‘Of course,’ ses he. And then the salt tears flowed down his sunken cheeks and formed a pool on the floor.
“‘Tell me,’ ses I, ‘was she a very handsome woman?’
“‘She was the most beautiful woman in all the world,’ ses he, ‘except my seventh wife, who was more beautiful than Venus, herself.’
“‘And what happened to your seventh wife?’ ses I.