A smile appeared on the man's face.
"But you'll take some roubles," said he.
"Well, if you like, just a small note for remembrance. It doesn't matter what."
"Here's ten thousand roubles!"
And he handed out a handsome new note for that amount. It fluttered from his hand to the pavement and was caught on the wind.
"Pick it up quickly! It's ten thousand roubles," one wished to cry anxiously to the passer-by.
Only ten thousand! And for something less than sixpence!
"Europe won't get right before the Russian business is straightened out," said an American commercial traveller at the hotel. He, for his part, was engaged in the profitless task of disposing of large margins of goods at fifty per cent below cost of production whilst the leisurely, crafty Greeks kept him waiting from day to day in the expectation of getting another ten per cent reduction.
"The whole world's out of gear," said the American in disgust. "The war and the Russian revolution are the cause. They have ruined the meaning of money."
I was to find his words true to this extent that at every capital the European problem proved to be inextricably involved in the Russian problem also.