re nous_, he is very
apt to do." The old man glanced at us approvingly, and trying hard to
look honest, said, "Ya, ya; when he can get _ein_ piastre he will not
take _ein halb_--but when I ask a piastre for any tings, (and he was
grave again,) it is tantamount as to say, 'dis is de _leastest_ preis to
give.'" "All here has a fixed price, has it?" "Ya, ya." "And what may
this pretty little figure be worth?" "I shall confess dat is dear; two
hundred piastres is de preis--Rusca would have said four hundred to
begin mit." We admitted its beauty; but said two hundred spread out upon
the table were also beautiful. "De good ting is de dear ting," said he,
and we admitted the truth of the proposition, both in the abstract and
in its application; took up a specious-looking coin, which he took as
abruptly out of our hand--"_Nein gewiss nicht_," we must not buy that.
"Why?" Because some people had not scrupled to tell him (though they
knew better) that it was a Rusca. "Rusca!" said we, "and what does that
mean?" "In Neapolitan _patois_," said he, "we call all our specious but
doubtful wares Ruscas! But dis," continued he, taking up a companion to
it--"dis I baptize in my own name, and offer for a true John A----."
"Ah!" sighed we, but without _emphasis_, as if it had only _just_
occurred to us "how difficult, now-a-days, _not_ to be deceived;" and we
replaced the J---- A---- in his box accordingly. "Ven all amateurs,"
said he, (following out his own thought, rather than replying to ours,)
"ven all amateurs were connoisseurs likewise, we might say goot-night to
dis bissnesse."

In the days of our novitiate, when we used to say, and think we knew (as
the phrase is) what would please us, and would buy according to our
means, we found (as indeed all purchasers in these matters find) that
time, while it brought with it a nicer appreciation in judging works of
art, diminished also our opinion of what we had formerly purchased; and,
to avoid fresh disappointments, we used to apply to an _antiquario_ to
give us his advice _pro re nata_;--as the reader will see by the
following note of Herr A----, which, as it prevented our making one or
two foolish purchases, was not without its value, and we preserved it
accordingly. It ran _verbatim_ thus--

"Sir,--You may copy my catalogue, but on Montag ber sur I must hav
back. The _botel_ is not good in such a manner. The _figure_ is of
no great value; it is not antic, and not fair; s