u this--that
I am in the deepest, most humiliating, and most cruel trouble, and," he
went on in proud tones that harmonized ill with the words just uttered,
"I have no wish to beg for either help or sympathy."

"Eh! eh!"

The two syllables which the old man pronounced resembled the sound of a
rattle. Then he went on thus:

"Without compelling you to entreat me, without making you blush for
it, and without giving you so much as a French centime, a para from the
Levant, a German heller, a Russian kopeck, a Scottish farthing, a single
obolus or sestertius from the ancient world, or one piastre from the
new, without offering you anything whatever in gold, silver, or copper,
notes or drafts, I will make you richer, more powerful, and of more
consequence than a constitutional king."

The young man thought that the older was in his dotage, and waited in
bewilderment without venturing to reply.

"Turn round," said the merchant, suddenly catching up the lamp in order
to light up the opposite wall; "look at that leathern skin," he went on.

The young man rose abruptly, and showed some surprise at the sight of a
piece of shagreen which hung on the wall behind his chair. It was only
about the size of a fox's skin, but it seemed to fill the deep shadows
of the place with such brilliant rays that it looked like a small comet,
an appearance at first sight inexplicable. The young sceptic went up
to this so-called talisman, which was to rescue him from all points of
view, and he soon found out the cause of its singular brilliancy. The
dark grain of the leather had been so carefully burnished and polished,
the striped markings of the graining were so sharp and clear, that every
particle of the surface of the bit of Oriental leather was in itself a
focus which concentrated the light, and reflected it vividly.

He accounted for this phenomenon categorically to the old man, who only
smiled meaningly by way of answer. His superior smile led the young
scientific man to fancy that he himself had been deceived by some
imposture. He had no wish to carry one more puzzle to his grave, and
hastily turned the skin over, like some child eager to find out the
mysteries of a new toy.

"Ah," he cried, "here is the mark of the seal which they call in the
East the Signet of Solomon."

"So you know that, then?" asked the merchant. His peculiar method of
laughter, two or three quick breathings through the nostrils, said more
than any words howeve