'Most assuredly!'

'He is, then, in fact, your servant: you must pay him handsomely, for
him to live so well?'

'By no means! we pay him nothing.'

'That is droll; he must be very rich then?'

'Really, my dear friend, I cannot say. Why, yes! I -- I suppose he may
be very rich!'

'Tis singular that a rich man should take so much trouble for others!'

'My good friend! of course he lives by his trouble.'

'Ah! How, then,' continued the inquisitive Fantaisian, 'if you do not
pay him for his services, and he yet lives by them; how, I pray, does he
acquire these immense riches?'

'Really, my good sir, I am, in truth, the very last man in the world to
answer questions: he is a banker; bankers are always rich; but why they
are, or how they are, I really never had time to inquire. But I
suppose, if the truth were known, they must have very great
opportunities.'

'Ah! I begin to see,' said Popanilla. 'It was really very kind of
him,' continued the Captain, 'to make me a present of these little pink
shells: what would I not give to turn them into a necklace, and send it