Pinkus, with an ironical smile; "take care
you don't know him to your cost. Ask him his name; he knows it better
than I do."

"If you will put no confidence in me, I will in you," said Veitel, and
told him the whole conversation.

"So he would have given you instruction?" said Pinkus, shaking his head
in amazement; "fifty dollars is a large sum; but many a man would give a
hundred times as much to know what he does. Not that I care what you
learn, or from whom."

Veitel went to his lair in greater perplexity than ever. Soon came
Pinkus with a slight supper for the stranger, to whom he manifested a
remarkable degree of sociability.

He now called him out on the balcony, and after a short talk in the
dark, of which Veitel guessed himself the subject, re-entered the room,
saying,

"This gentleman wishes to spend a few weeks here in private; therefore,
even if questioned, you will not mention it."

"I don't even know who the gentleman is," said Veitel; "how could I tell
any one that he is living here?"

"You may trust this young man," observed Pinkus to the stranger, and
then wished the two good-night.

The man in spectacles sat down to his supper, every now and then casting
such a glance at Veitel as an old raven might do at an unfledged
chicken, who had innocently ventured within his reach.

Meanwhile, the thought darted across Itzig's mind that this mysterious
person might be one of the chosen few--a possessor of the infallible
receipt by which a poor man could become rich. Veitel knew now that
there was no magic in this, that the receipt consisted in being more
cunning than the rest of the world, and that this cunning was not
without its serious consequences to its possessor; nay, it seemed to him
as though to acquire it were to make a compact with Satan himself. His
hand trembled, his pale face glowed, but his desire for more certain
knowledge on the subject prevailed; and he told the stranger that,
having heard that there was an art of always buying and selling to the
best advantage, and so of making a fortune, he wished to ask whether it
was that art that he (the stranger) could impart if he chose.

The old man pushed his plate away, and looked at him with amazement.
"Either," said he, "you are a great dolt, or the best actor I have ever
seen."

"No; I am only a dolt, but I wish to become clever," was the reply.

"A singular fellow," said the other, adjusting his spectacles so as to
see him better. Af