not tell positively how many I should take, but that I would come in the
afternoon, and taste them again, and mark out what I wanted. He seemed
uneasy at that, and pretended he had two merchants waiting to see them,
and he could sell them immediately, and I might do him a prejudice if I
made him wait and put them off, who perhaps might buy in the mean time.

I answered him coldly, I would not hinder him selling them by any means
if he could have a better chapman, that I could not come sooner, and
that I would not be obliged to take the whole parcel, nor would I buy
any of them without tasting them again: he argued much to have me buy
them, seeing, as he said, I had tasted them before, and liked them very
well.

'I did so,' said I, 'but I love to have my palate confirm one day what
it approved the day before.' 'Perhaps,' says he, 'you would have some
other person's judgment of them, and you are welcome to do so, sir, with
all my heart; send any body you please:' but still he urged for a
bargain, when the person sent should make his report; and then he had
his agents ready, I understood afterwards, to manage the persons I
should send.

I answered him frankly, I had no great judgment, but that, such as it
was, I ventured to trust to it; I thought I had honest men to deal with,
and that I should bring nobody to taste them for me but myself.

This pleased him, and was what he secretly wished; and now, instead of
desiring me to come immediately, he told me, that seeing I would not buy
without seeing the goods again, and would not go just then, he could not
be in the way in the afternoon, and so desired I would defer it till
next morning, which I readily agreed to.