s an
undoubted antique; and lest that rogue should at any time take liberties
with my name, (for he is capable of anything,) and say he had been duped
by Avocato Rusca into the purchase of a false thing for a true, here is
a document with his name to it, which I then and there caused him to
sign, which _proves_ the contrary. I met him to-day, and he seems much
pleased with Lord X----'s liberality, who has bought the coin!!" The
above is a sample of Avocato Rusca's _confessions_, and of his somewhat
original notions of honesty! Once, however, our honest friend forgot
himself in a purchase we made of him. And no wonder, for we had also
forgotten ourselves; for the time when we transacted business was the
gloaming, and the room being dark had lent its aid to the deception. We
had also an engagement to dine out, and it was getting late, and we were
in a hurry. But that same night, on returning from our party, we had
looked again at what we had bought, and then, first perceiving our
mistake, determined, if possible, to repair it by repairing early next
morning to the Minerva Hotel, there to surprise him in his
dressing-gown, by which bold _coup-de-main_ (having pre-arranged in our
own minds what we should take away with us in lieu _of_ what we brought
back) we carried our point at last!--and hardly carried it; for while
the _new_ batch and the _old_ confronted each other on his table, the
one being fair, the other like himself, ill-favoured in appearance, we
saw his restless glance move wistfully from the one to the other. Three
times in one minute his countenance fell; he coughed, he hesitated, he
_cospetto'd_ once, he wished we had made known our mind over night; he
_cospetto'd_ again, and finally was about to reconsider the affair,
when, not to be foiled by a rogue, we threw it upon _his honour_, (of
which he had not a particle,) and, by the extravagance of such a
compliment, prevailed. "He had never cheated us before," (which was
strictly true; but the reason, which the reader will have no difficulty
to guess, we did not think it necessary or prudent to assign;) would he,
after so long an acquaintance with us, change his tactics now?--we need
not ask him--we were "persuasissimi" that he would not, neither did he!
We removed the temptation out of his way as soon as we could, and felt,
as we went home, that we had achieved that morning as _great_ a piece of
diplomacy, and as difficult, as ever did Lord Palmerston when he was