"But," said I, "will the clerks of the Mint trust me with such a sum?"

"Certainly not, unless you pay them in current money or in good paper."

"My dear sir, I have neither money nor credit to that amount."

"Then you will certainly never make twenty thousand florins in a week. By
the way you talked yesterday I took you for a millionaire."

"I am very sorry you were so mistaken."

"I shall get one of my sons to transact the business to-day."

After giving me this rather sharp lesson, M. Boaz went into his office,
and I went to dress.

M. d'Afri had paid his call on me at the "Hotel d'Angleterre," and not
finding me there he had written me a letter asking me to come and see
him. I did so, and he kept me to dinner, shewing me a letter he had
received from M. de Boulogne, in which he was instructed not to let me
dispose of the twenty millions at a greater loss than eight per cent., as
peace was imminent. We both of us laughed at this calm confidence of the
Parisian minister, while we who were in a country where people saw deeper
into affairs knew that the truth was quite otherwise.

On M. d'Afri's hearing that I was staying with a Jew, he advised me to
keep my own counsel when with Jews, "because," said he, "in business,
most honest and least knavish mean pretty much the same thing. If you
like," he added, "I will give you a letter of introduction to M. Pels, of
Amsterdam." I accepted his offer with gratitude, and in the hope of being