The old man began in a subdued voice of lamentable recollection:
“I wandered on through the bare uplands, miserable, weak, penniless and in rags. So far had my soul fallen that on the seventh day I came near to omitting my prayer at even … but I thank Heaven that this temptation was conquered! I knelt down painfully upon the little carpet which was my last possession and submitted myself to the will of Allah.
“As though in answer to my prayer, and while I still knelt there, I saw afar off the figure of one who moved, as I could see from that distance, with a carriage of leisure, and I hoped—I dared to hope—that in answer to my prayer, I will not say a victim, but, at any rate, some provender was to be afforded me.
“I hastened my steps to catch up the stranger, and as I approached him remarked with pleasure his fine clothes and stately manner. ‘I have here,’ said I to myself, ‘some important man, someone doubtless unused to the base necessities of commerce; simple, noble in mind, straightforward, generous, amply provided: the very companion whom I should desire.’ I turned over in my mind (as I slackened my steps for a moment, so that he should not yet observe my arrival) various schemes whereby I might excuse my intrusion upon his solitary walk. At last I hit on that which seemed to me the most agreeable to his supposed circumstances and to my appearance. I strode up to him and bowing low asked him whether his Greatness could direct a poor wretch to a certain village the name of which I had heard and which lay more or less in the direction I had taken.
“The stranger turned to salute me and with that I felt an added delight. For he was the very thing I had prayed. Young, simple in manner, courteous, probably, by his dress, independent and wealthy; probably, as our language has it, ‘his own father.’
“He wore rare ornaments; his cloak was of the finest wool and the cord that bound his headdress was interspersed with silver.
“By way of reply to my request, he told me in a pleasant, deep voice, speaking after the fashion of the rich, that he was himself strolling towards it so far as his own house and farm, which lay between, and that there he would put me upon my way. I expressed my gratitude, and my fear lest so bedraggled a companion might be distasteful to him. He smiled and assured me that he loved nothing better than converse. He had visited a neighbour that morning to ask advice on a certain set of pear trees of his which had not been doing well. He had left his servant to follow him with his mount, preferring this hour’s stroll back homewards in the cool of the sunset hour which had now descended.
“As we went we talked of many things and I frankly told him the story of my life; for I have discovered that nothing is more pleasing to men of his station than the account of how another has been reduced from wealth to poverty.
“ ‘I was not always,’ said I, as I strolled by his side, ‘the deplorable figure you now see me. Indeed, but a very few months ago I was the over-manager of a great fruit plantation some hundred miles to the north of this place. I had come with good recommendations from my former employers, planters of the Gulf. I had left these my original masters with the best of characters and the kindest of recommendations, and only because the eldest son of one of the partners had to be put into the business and there was no room for both of us. I had accumulated in some years of useful service a sufficient little capital which my kind masters were so exceedingly generous as to double, and I was able to put the total sum into the new business to which I had been recommended. For it is always better,’ I added, ‘to have some stake in the firm.’
“ ‘You are right,’ said my new friend in hearty approval. ‘There is no greater error than to offer a firm such intangible things as talent, honesty and the rest. Valuable as they are, if they are unaccompanied by metal they are without substance and void.’
“With an expression of great humility I applauded his reply and told him how flattered I was to find that my judgment had jumped with his. ‘But, alas, Sir!’ I continued deferentially, ‘There is no controlling the current of our destinies! For there is One above—’
“ ‘I know, I know!’ agreed my companion hurriedly, in the tones of one to whom the sentiment was familiar and at the same time doubtful, and I continued:
“ ‘By that Divine Will,’ I went on, ‘was I visited. Heaven saw fit to try its servant. In the course of my management I was sent to negotiate the purchase of a cargo of lime-dressing at the nearest port, for use upon the plantation. On my way I had the misfortune to be robbed at an inn of the pouch of gold that had been confided to me. I ought, of course, to have returned at once and told my partners and employers what had happened, and to have offered, perhaps, to repair out of my own property what might look like the result of my own negligence; but I was afraid lest I should not be believed, and again lest, if I were believed, the loss should prejudice me in their eyes as an incompetent. What I did was to go forward to the port that very day, penniless, and trust to the credit of my firm to complete the transaction I had in hand.
“ ‘But once again I was unfortunate! I carried through the negotiations with
